Amnesty International (AI) and Human Rights Watch (HRW) have, in a joint statement, condemned the Government of Sri Lanka’s ever increasing intimidation and harassment of journalists and activists.
Amnesty International expressed concern at the discovery of a government hit list of Sri Lankan citizens under surveillance by the Sri Lankan intelligence unit, said to contain the names of thirty-five leading journalists and NGO officers.
Leaking of the list was seen by the rights organisation as way of intimidating the targets.
“Such a blatant leak can have only one purpose and that is to intimidate those individuals on the list and deter anyone from speaking to them” said Mike Blakemore, Media Director of Amnesty International UK
The Sri Lankan Defence Ministry swiftly denied the existence of such a list and demanded proof. After claiming that AI had been ‘badly hurt’ by the defeat of terrorism, Minister Rambukwella declared ‘If they have the hit list, we challenge them to prove it’.
The Presidential Secretariat echoed the Defence Ministry’s sentiments in a statement released shortly afterwards, claiming that inquiries were made and no evidence was found as to the existence of such a list.
This recent discovery comes on a background of an ever-increasing government drive to ‘silence and discredit’ the media and non-governmental organisations, AI and HRW highlighted.
“The Sri Lankan government is conducting a carefully coordinated witch hunt aimed at discrediting critics of the government,” said Brad Adams,
Grave concerns were expressed over the safety of the directors of two Sri Lankan nongovernmental organisations, Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) and Transparency International (TI), both of whom feature in the highest category on the list. The CPA and TI wrote a joint letter to President Mahinda Rajapaksa detailing their concern at their respective directors being identified on the government surveillance list. The two directors have previously received death threats and grenade attacks.
The CPA and TI reported on government violations during the January election as well as confronting the government’s use of state in the President’s campaign.
"This smacks of retaliation for reporting on violations during the presidential election," said Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International's Asia-Pacific director.