A Tamil newspaper editor and former member of parliament was killed outside his home on the besieged Jaffna Peninsula late Sunday, international and local media reported.
Sinnathamby Sivamaharajah, managing director of the Tamil-language Namathu Eelanadu newspaper was shot dead in Vellippalai. Police are investigating the murder, according to news reports. The motive for the killing is unclear.
“We are concerned that the killing of Sinnathamby Sivamaharajah could be part of a pattern of violence against Tamil journalists and media workers covering this conflict,” said Joel Simon, executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists.
“The targeting of journalists must cease. Authorities should conduct a thorough investigation into this murder and prosecute those responsible.”
Sivamaharajah, 68, was a former MP of the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), and a member of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA). His newspaper, Namathu Eelanadu, is sympathetic to the Tamil nationalist cause.
T Sivamaharajah’s home was inside a security zone controlled by the Sri Lankan military, and was under curfew at the time of the killing.
The Ministry of Defense denied that Sivamaharajah’s house was in the zone, and it accused the LTTE of the murder.
Three Tamil journalists—Subramaniyam Sugitharajah, Dharmeratnam Sivaram and Relangi Selvarajah—have been killed for their work since the beginning of 2005.
Warehouses containing printing equipment of another Jaffna-based Tamil newspaper, Uthayan, were burned down on Friday August 18 by unidentified men.
The Uthayan also has a Tamil nationalist editorial policy.
On Tuesday August 15, an Uthayan driver was killed in Jaffna, the fourth employee of the newspaper group to be killed in recent months.
Reporters Without Borders joined a chorus of rights groups in condemning the killing of a former minority Tamil politician and newspaper director gunned down in Jaffna at the weekend.
“All parties, especially the pro-government Tamil paramilitaries, must stop targeting civilians, journalists and humanitarian workers,” the group said in a statement. “The press is again the victim of Sri Lanka’s dirty war, and the government is partly to blame for this hellish cycle of violence.”
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