By C. A. Chandraprema –
C.A.Chandraprema
One of the delegations of local NGOs that presented a memorandum to Navi Pillay during her visit, was the Alliance of Media Organisations made up of the Free Media Movement, the Sri Lanka Working Journalists Association, the Federation of Media Employees Trade Union, the Sri Lanka Tamil Media Alliance, the Sri Lanka Muslim Media Forum, the South Asian Free Media Association – Sri Lanka Chapter, and the Media Movement for Democracy. In this memorandum, reference was made to the attacks on the Sirasa TV station, the Sunday Leader Press, the Siyatha TV station, the killing of Lasantha Wickremetunga, and the assaults on Media persons like Poddala Jayantha, Namal Perera, and other such incidents which are well known and will not be disputed by anybody. However, the memorandum presented to Pillay by the alliance of media NGOs also had the following statements which struck this writer as needing further investigation viz:
“Since 1981, 114 persons have been killed due to the exercise of freedom of expression, including journalists and media workers.”
“34 Journalists have been documented as killed between 2005 till to date…”
“Over 50 journalists, including prominent and well known press freedom activists, have gone into exile since 2009.”
We as journalists know that D.Sivaram, Lasantha Wickremetunga and Sampath de Silva, a freelancer attached to the Lakbima, were killed between 2004 and now, but who were all the others mentioned by the media NGOs? Then we know that Uvindu Kurukulasuriya (Colombo Telegraph) , Sandaruwan Senadhira (Lanka e News) and media activist Sunanda Deshapriya have gone into self exile but who are all the others? The numbers mentioned are large – 114 killed since 1981, 34 since 2005 alone and no less than 50 in self exile! Last week, this writer phoned media activist Sunil Jayasekera of the FMM and asked for the lists of media personnel who had been killed and had gone into self exile. A book written by Seetha Ranjanee a media activist, about the 114 media persons killed since 1981 was given to me.
Dharmasiri Lankapeli of the Media Movement for Democracy sent me a list of media persons killed from 2004 to date. The representations made by the media NGOs to Pillay was based on this document. This list had 44, not 34 names and it started from 2004 onwards, whereas the present government came into power only in November 2005. However, what is important is the manner in which the numbers of ‘media personnel’ killed have been arrived at. Of the 44 supposed ‘media persons’ killed, no less than 22 were LTTE cadres! Among the regional newspapers in the North and East, the Uthayan, Valampuri, Tinakural, Dinamurusu, and the Colombo based Virakesari and Sudaroli are well known. The Dinamurusu is the paper of the EPDP. The other papers may have been described as being Tamil nationalist or pro-LTTE, but they were not owned by the LTTE. The LTTE had its own newspapers among which were the Elanatham based in Kilinochchi and the Eelamurusu. Another newspaper, Namathu Elanadu was started in 2002 in Jaffna by a former TULF and TNA MP Sinnatamby Sivamaharajah after the peace accord was signed.
On October 1, 2002, when the Namathu Elanadu was launched as a daily newspaper in Jaffna, the LTTE website Tamilnet had an effusive article which described how the Eelamurusu newspaper was targeted by the IPKF when they began operations against the LTTE in 1987, and how the Eelanatham was not allowed to function in Jaffna after the army took over the peninsula in 1995. Tamilnet said that the new newspaper Namathu Elanadu would be the Tamil Homeland’s ‘vanguard daily’. What is clear is that the Namathu Elanadu was started to take advantage of the political space opened to the LTTE in the government controlled Jaffna peninsula by the 2002 ceasefire agreement where LTTE cadres were allowed into the peninsula for political work.
LTTE cadres as ‘media persons’
The Eelamurusu, Eelanatham, and Namathu Eelanadu were LTTE publications and run by LTTE activists or cadres and it is misleading to lump these newspapers with the Uthayan, Tinakuraal and other such newspapers. But the media NGOs have classified not only these LTTE newspapers, but even the Voice of Tigers as a media organization! Thus, 22 of the 44 ‘media persons’ killed between 2004 and 2009 were terrorists directly involved with the LTTE. The list of ‘kotiyas’ includes my dear friend D.Sivaram, the editor of the LTTE website Tamilnet. LTTE activists carrying out propaganda for a terrorist organization cannot be considered media persons by any stretch of the imagination.
If there is anything objectionable in the manner in which they met with their deaths, they should be classified as extrajudicial killings of terrorist suspects and taken up separately. Even though Sivaram was the editor of Tamilnet which was as widely read as any local newspaper, and Siva himself was a journalist of no mean talent, the Editors’ Guild never thought of offering him membership for obvious reasons. The names of the LTTE propaganda cadres and functionaries falsely classified as ‘media personnel’by the media NGOs is as follows.
Kannamuttu Arsakumar – newspaper delivery agent Batticaloa Edition of Eelanatham killed 29 June 2005
Yogakumar Krishnapillai – killed 30 September 2005 a distributor of the Batticaloa edition of Eelanatham.
Chandrabose Suthakar – killed 16 April 2007 in Vavuniya, A regular contributor Eelanatham, Eelanadu, and Veerakesari.
Selvarasah Rajeevarman – killed 29 April 2007 in Jaffna trainee staff reporter for Uthayan was formerly attached to Namathu Eelanadu.
Isaivizhi Chempian (Subhajini) – killed 27 November 2007 in Kilinochchi radio presenter in Voice of Tigers’. Killed when the radio station came under attack by Sri Lankan Air Force.
Suresh Limbiyo – 27 November 2007 in Kilinochchi, technical officer of Voice of Tigers Killed in the same air force attack.
T.Tharmalingam – killed 27 November 2007 in Kilinochchi another Voice of Tigers functionary.
Rasiya Jeynthira – killed October 2008 (date unverifiable) former sub editor of Eelanatham
Punniyamurthy Sathyamurthy – 12 February 2009 in Mullaithivu Regular contributor to Eelanatham, Vellynatham, (The weekend issue of Eelanatham) and Eelamurasu.
Sasi Mathan – 05 March 2009 in Mullaithivu distributor for Eelanatham killed in Iranaipalai.
Mahalingam Maheswaran – 13 March 2009 in Mullaithivu, distributor of Eelanatham in the Mullaithivu District, killed in Pokkanai.
Anton – March 2009 in Mullaithivu (date unverifiable) distributor of the Eelanatham killed in Iranaipalai.
Rajkumar Densy – 09 April 2009 in Mullaithivu computer graphic designer of Eelanatham. Killed along with her husband in Pokkanai.
Jeyaraja Susithara (Suganthan) – 25 April 2009 in Mullaithivu printing machine operator of Eelanatham.
Mariyappu Anthoneykumar – 14 May 2009 in Mullaithivu news reporter for Eelanatham killed in Mullivaikkal.
Thuraisingham Tharshan – 14th May 2009 in Mullaithivu computer graphic designer at Eelanatham killed in Mullivaikkal.
Isai Priya (Shoba) – 18 May 2009 in Mullaithivu presenter for LTTE television station.
Thirukulasingham Thavabalan – May 2009 (date unverifiable) in Mullaithivu head of LTTE radio station.
Sinnathamby Sivamaharajah – 20 August 2006 in Jaffna Managing Director of Namathu Eelanadu shot dead in his residence.
S. Raveendran – 12 February 2007 in Jaffna printing machine operator at Namathu Eelanadu.
Dharmaratnam Sivaram (Taraki) – 28 April 2005 in Colombo. Editor of Tamil Net.
All the above were directly involved in the LTTE and they cannot be considered journalists or media persons in the ordinary sense of that term. They were enemy combatants fulfilling a propaganda function. The fact that some of the above may have been killed extra-judicially by government hit men, does not turn them into journalists. The extrajudicial killing of terrorist suspects has to be taken up elsewhere and not in media representations. One has to draw the line somewhere. If the names of these LTTE cadres and functionaries is removed from the list of media persons killed since 2004, it goes down by 50%! One can see how Sri Lanka has been falling behind in media freedom indices.
The endangered newspaper porters
When one talks of media freedom, it usually means the extent of freedom allowed to the media by the government. And when one refers to media persons killed, this usually means media persons killed by the government in an effort to suppress media freedom. At times, lists of media persons killed by non-state actors such as terrorist groups are also compiled to highlight violations committed by such groups. But the Sri Lankan media NGOs have lumped the media persons killed by the terrorist groups along with killings like that of Richard de Zoysa, and Lasantha Wickremetunga where the government or a section of it could be implicated. The following are the media persons killed by the LTTE included in the list of murdered media persons falsely conveying the impression that the government was responsible for these as well.
Kandasamy Aiyer Balanadarajah – 16 August 2004 in Colombo. Media Secretary of Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP), and worked for the EPDP paper Thinamurasu.
Relangi Selvarajah – 12 August 2005 in Colombo. A Radio and Television presenter who worked for state run media institutions. She produced a radio program called Ithaya Veenai critical of the LTTE.
L. M. Faleel – 02 December 2005 in Batticaloa he was not a media person at all but the Divisional Secretary of the Muslim enclave of Kattankudy, Batticaloa.
Mariadasan Manojanraj – 27 July 2006 in Jaffna distributor of Tamil newspapers Yarl Thinakural and Veerakesari. Killed in an LTTE claymore explosion.
W.Gunasinghe – 05 December 2007 killed in the Kebithigollewa claymore mine attack. provincial correspondent to the Divaina.
Paranirupesingham Devakumar – 28 May 2008 in Jaffna Jaffna correspondent of Sakthi TV and the head of its provincial station. Hacked to death after being abducted by the LTTE while on his way home from work. (He was considered pro-government)
Rasmi Mohamad – 06 October 2008 provincial correspondent for Sirasa TV, killed in the LTTE suicide bomb attack that killed Major Gen Janaka Perera.
That takes another seven names out of the list of media persons supposedly killed by the government. Of the 44 names compiled by the media NGOs, only 15 can be even suspected as instances when the government or elements connected to the government tried to suppress media freedom through murder. Viz the following.
Aiyathurai Nadesan – 31 May 2004 in Batticaloa columnist for Veerakesari. Karuna group suspected.
Lanka Jayasundera – 11 December 2004 in Colombo. photo journalist Wijeya Newspapers. killed in hand bomb attack by Sinhala extremists on musical concert in Colombo on Ven Gangodawila Soma thero’s death anniversary.
David Selvaratnam – 29 August 2005 in Colombo security officer attached to Sudar Oli” killed when two grenades were thrown into the newspaper office.
K. Navaratnam – 22 December 2005 in Jaffna Thinakuraal distributor in Jaffna.
Subramaniam Sugirtharajan – 24 January 2006 in Trincomalee correspondent for Sudaroli newspaper. exposed the killing of five students in Trincomalee on the 02 of January 2006
S.T.Gananathan – 01 February 2006 in Jaffna supposedly the patron of the Tamil Information Centre
Bastian George Sagayathas – 03 May 2006 in Jaffna Circulation Manager of Uthayan.
Rajaratnam Ranjith Kumar – 03 May 2006 Circulation Supervisor at Uthayan
Sampath Lakmal de Silva- 02 July 2006 in Colombo freelance defence correspondent for Lakbima.
Sathasivam Baskaran – 15 August 2006 in Jaffna delivery driver attached to Uthayan killed near Atchchuveli , Jaffna.
Subramaniam Ramachandran – 15 February 2007 in Jaffna Vadamaradchi correspondent for ‘Yarl Thinakural’ and Valampuri abducted in Vadamaradchi.
Sahadevan Nilakshan – 01 August 2007 Editor of a student magazine published by Jaffna District Student Federation.
Anthonypillai Sherin Siththiranja – 05 November 2007 in Jaffna newspaper delivery agent Yarl Thinakkural’. Missing.
Vadivelu Nirmalaraj – 17 November 2007 in Jaffna proof reader for Uthayan – Missing.
Lasantha Wickramatunge – 09 January 2009 in Colombo Editor of The Sunday Leader.
Of course even 15 instances of the killing of media persons, does constitute an attack on media freedom, but 15 would place us much more favourably on a media freedom index than 44. This list also shows that Sri Lanka is probably unique in the world in that it is much more dangerous to be a circulation manager or a newspaper porter than it is to be a newspaper editor or a journalist! This is of course not to say that production employees killed in an attempt to suppress a newspaper should not be included among media persons killed. But for a journalist, it’s a bit disconcerting to see Lasantha Wickremetunga lumped together with newspaper porters and the like. How can one even be certain that these newspaper distributors were killed for anything to do with the newspaper?
The ‘Editor’ of Wedi Handa
The Alliance of Media NGOs in its memorandum to Navi Pillay also said that 114 ‘media persons’ had been killed since 1981. This is largely based on a compilation done by media activist Seetha Ranjanee on behalf of the Free Media Movement. Here too large numbers of terrorists have been freely included among ‘media persons’. Two that caught this writer’s fancy was the inclusion of Sathasivam Sivashanmugamurthy alias Sundaram, as the Editor of Puthiya Pathei – A newspaper editor no less! Sundaram was a daring terrorist largely responsible for making PLOTE the number one Tamil terrorist movement Sri Lanka in 1981. He was killed in 1982 by Prabahakaran’s hit man Charles Anthony in what was the first internecine killing among Tamil terrorist movements. Even more funnily, on page 110 of her compilation Seetha Ranjanee added the name of Upali Gamage the ‘Editor’ of Wedi Handa among media persons killed. The Wedi Handa was the newsletter of the dreaded JVP death squads in the late 1980s! By what stretch of the imagination does one describe such terrorists as newspaper Editors?
Another problem is the inclusion of non media persons in the list of 114 media persons killed. Even political leaders like Vijaya Kumaratunga and left wing political activists like Nandana Marasinghe, and T.B. Wijesuriya have been classified as media persons. Furthermore, in this list of 114 persons, no less than 39 have killed by the LTTE. The JVP has killed 24, Five were killed by the IPKF, two by EROS, two by the EPDP, one by PLOTE and another by suspected Muslim extremists. Only 33 of the 114 killings can be suspected to be government hit jobs. As we said earlier, many of the 114 are not media persons at all. Only 66 of the 114 can be deemed to have anything to do with the media even if one includes newspaper porters as media persons. Of the 66 actual media related persons in this compilation, once again it is the LTTE that has killed the largest number of persons with 24 to their credit. The JVP killed 6, the IPKF 4, EPDP 2 and PLOTE 1. The successive governments or sections of governments can be even remotely connected to only 20 of these 66 killings including the high profile cases like those of Lasantha Wickremetunga, D.Sivaram and Richard de Zoysa.
According to Seetha Ranjanee’s compilation, four media owners had also been killed. But of these, Kandaiah Kandaswamy the owner of Saturday Review was killed by EROS. M.Amirthalingam the owner of Murasoli was killed by the LTTE. S.T.Gananathan the owner of the ‘Tamil News and Information Centre’ about which nobody seems to know anything, could have been killed by anybody since he was a nobody. It is only the killing of S.Sivamaharajah the founder of Namathu Elanadu the LTTE newspaper in Jaffna, which can be credited to the government’s account. Despite this, the memorandum submitted to Navi Pillay by the media NGOs has been written in such a manner as to convey the impression that the present government and the previous governments are responsible for all the 114 killings mentioned in the compilation.
This talk of the suppression of the media has been arrived at by inflating the figures with people who were killed by terrorists and by including persons not related to the media. Could the media NGO provide us with a list of the 50 plus ‘media persons’ who are supposed to be in exile. Only a handful of these exiled ‘media persons’ would have anything to do with the media. The TV station most critical of the government is Sirasa TV. Their facilities were attacked on at least two occasions. Yet not a single employee of Sirasa TV has fled overseas. Until recently the Sunday Leader was deemed to be anti-government, but only the former features editor of Irudina its Sinhala sister paper had fled overseas. Even Frederica Janz went overseas only after she ceased to be the editor. So who are these 50 plus ‘journalists’ in exile?
Clearly the Editor’s guild will have to step in and lay down some guidelines as to who can and cannot be considered a media person and some control will have to established over the kind of memoranda being submitted by purported media organisations to bodies like the UN.
What Pillay refused to acknowledge
External Affairs minister G.L.Peiris when he was in London last week to deliver the keynote address at the Cambridge University symposium on economic crime, met the press in London at the Sri Lankan High Commission. Addressing the mainly British and Indian media persons present, Peiris spoke of the recent visit by the UN Human Rights Commissioner to Sri Lanka and stressed that Pillay had been far from unbiased. Peiris explained that he was disappointed that Pillay had not made any use of a recent report of a survey conducted by the UN High Commission for Refugees in arriving at her conclusions about the ground situation in the north.
This UNHCR report was titled “A Protection Assessment of Sri Lankan Internally Displaced Persons, who have Returned, Relocated or are Locally Integrating”. It contained the findings of a survey carried out by the UNHCR from November 2012 to March 2013 in the Jaffna, Mannar, Vavuniya, Killinochchi, Mullaitivu, and Trincomalee districts. A total of 917 households as a representative sample of over 138,651 households (463,924 individuals) had participated in the survey. Some of the findings of this report make for interesting reading. Take for example the following questions and the responses received:
* How safe does your family feel compared to when you first arrived here? Response: Only 3% of Jaffna and Vanuniya district residents and 0% of Mannar residents felt less safe, Those feeling unsafe were higher in Killinochchi with 18% and in Mullaitivu 15%. But as an average, only 8% of residents in all districts felt less safe.
* Does anyone restrict or register your movement in and out of your village? Response: Only 1% of respondents in Jaffna and Mannar answered in the affirmative. It was just 3% in Kilinochchi. Those answering in the affirmative were higher in the Vavuniya and Mullaitivu districts with 7% and 6% respectively.
* In general, over the past week, how many meals per day did the members of the household have? Response: Over 84% had had three meals a day while 14% had had two meals, and only 2% had had one meal per day which indicates that the level of poverty had decreased.
* When it came to education 8% of the respondents were very satisfied with the schools, 79% were satisfied, 12% unsatisfied and 1% very unsatisfied.
* With regard to housing, it was found that only 13% of respondents were living in emergency shelters.
* To the question whether they intend staying where they are now, or moving elsewhere, 5% of the respondents in Jaffna and 3% in Vavuniya said they would move somewhere else whereas in all the other districts, the overwhelming response was that they would continue to stay where they are now.
* And most significantly, when each household was asked whether any immediate family member had died (due both to natural causes and otherwise) since August 2006, affirmative answers were given by 8% of the respondents in Jaffna, 12% in Kilinochchi, 10% in Mannar, 11% in Mullaitivu, 10%, in Trincomalee and 14% in Vavuniya. The average for all districts was 11%. Thus a survey carried out by a UN agency itself had disproved the wildly exaggerated figure of 40,000 civilian deaths alone in the final months of the war mentioned in Ban Ki Moon’s Advisory panel report of April 2011. One death each in 11% of 138,651 households works out to around 15,251 deaths. If one removes from this the number of those who died due to natural causes in the years since August 2006, the final number of those who died in the war will be very close to the figures that emerged in the survey called “Enumeration of Vital Events –Northern Province” that was carried out by the Dept of Census and Statistics in 2011.
This UNHCR report also observed that almost no respondents had experienced a serious security incident against a member of his family since being resettled. Furthermore it said that a positive note about the military presence is that the military is involved in settling disputes, helping people build houses and assisting in village level development activities. The report also observed a high level of confidence in civilian law enforcement among respondents. Pillay had not taken any of the findings of this UN report into consideration in making her statement on completing her Sri Lankan tour despite the fact that Prof. Peiris had personally given her a copy when he met her in Sri Lanka.
*This article appeared in The Sunday Island
Related posts;
Freedom Of Expression: CPJ, IFJ, IMS, JDS, PEN And RSF Submission To UPR Of Sri Lanka
Freedom Of Expression: My Submission With ARTICLE19 To UPR Of Sri Lanka By Uvindu Kurukulasuriya
Spring Koha / September 8, 2013
I laughed so much, I cried!
When I got to the bit…….Even Frederica Janz went overseas only after she ceased to be the editor………….I just fell apart.
The man’s a comedy genius.
Thank God evil Mervyn didn’t get to cut this mans fingers off.
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Peon / September 8, 2013
Comedy indeed!
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Dinuk / September 8, 2013
How much did this clown Chandraprema get paid for this TRIPE from Gota the goon and brother mahinda?!
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Jim softy / September 8, 2013
Was Frederica Janz a Tabloid reporter or a journalist ?
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Native Vedda / September 9, 2013
Jim softy
“Was Frederica Janz a Tabloid reporter or a journalist?”
All the Baboons here show their frustration, hatred, anger and abuse against women.
Just give her constructive comments instead of showing how pathetic you people are.
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Don Quixote / September 9, 2013
Fredrika Jansz was a fiction writer and aren’t the veddas’ more closely related to the baboons ?
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Native Vedda / September 9, 2013
Don Quixote
Stupid man this what Jimmy wrote to defend the women authors contribution yet he takes a did at Fredrika Jansz:
{It looks Rathnawalli is publishing parts of her thesis in order to get constructive criticism.
All the Baboons here show their frustration, hatred, anger and abuse against women.
Just give her constructive comments instead of showing how pathetic you people are.
Jim softy – September 8, 2013
8:17 pm
Reply}
I am trying to remind him of his hypocrisy. Jimmy expresses two different views about two different authors all within 13 minutes, with moral certainty.
Either he has a personality of Jakyle and Hyde or bafooning himself. Please be his cheer leader because he is lonely.
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Ariya Udawatte / September 8, 2013
CA Chandraperuma became a joke after he wrote “Gota’s War.” He and Dayan Jayatilleka are competing for the best liar’s prize awarded by the Liar maharajah. All these frauds will be tied up with the Satakaya and dragged to the sea by angry people. Mohan Peiris and GLP will also be dragged like this. When people feel violsted so badly this is what happens. Merv will be tied up with the Maharaja’s lunket
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Amarasiri / September 8, 2013
Mr. C. A. Chandraprema –
” One of the delegations of local NGOs that presented a memorandum to Navi Pillay during her visit, was the Alliance of Media Organisations made up of the …..”
” Pillay had not taken any of the findings of this UN report into consideration in making her statement on completing her Sri Lankan tour despite the fact that Prof. Peiris had personally given her a copy when he met her in Sri Lanka.”
What is the Truth. What where is the data. There is support for both versions.
Interesting. It is like the Church saying the Sun is going around the Earth as written in the scriptures, as seen by the Sun rises from the East and Sets on the West.
The astronomers, Copernicus, Galileo,and Kepler cites the retro motion of Mars, the Phases of Venus,the Moons of Jupiter and claims that the Earth moves around the Sun and rotates on its own axis with supporting DATA. The DATA is unequivocal and unambiguous.
Yet, even today, 400 years later, about 25% of the people in the developed world, believes that the Sun goes astound a stationary Earth. So there is plenty of room to fool people, even today, even with data.
DeJa Vu….
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Lapatiya / September 8, 2013
Actually there is a severe competition among the following Journalists to be a best Journalist in the Country.
1. Rajpal Abenayaka.
2. Hudson Samarasnghe.
3. Mahinda Abesundara.
4. C.A Chandraprema.
5. Karunadasa Suriaarachchi.
According to Saddarmadveepa Chakrawarthi’s standard top class Laundryman will get award of best Journalist.
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JULAMPITIYE AMARAYA / September 9, 2013
You forgot the GREAT, HARVED, DR MALINDA SENAVIRATHNA and big mouth Bandula Jayasekara.
they are leading, and washing better than the others are.
but there are some competitors,
who know many gilmarts, than these guys are,
They will try to trip their legs.
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bandi / September 8, 2013
This FOOL gota’s pimp takes the cake,the bun and the whole bakery!!!!!
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Percy Jilmart / September 9, 2013
@ bandi
Maybe someone will write a biography of Chandraprema and call it “Gota’s Pimp?” Maybe Siva Sankaran Sarma aka David Blocker could do the needful? ;-)
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Siva Sankaran Sarma / September 9, 2013
I take it your sex change reversal was successful? It’s a good thing they didn’t have to keep anything much of you on ice and avoided any mix ups with the frozen peas :)
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I am no muslim / September 9, 2013
Sarma, Chandraprema is not Man-gala and RanilW type. Don’t you ever visit him. I don’t think he’ll welcome you.
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JULAMPITIYE AMARAYA / September 9, 2013
Very wrong assumption by Percy Jilmart.
It should be “GOTA’S PIMPS”.
Plurals,
As there are many pimps and Dirty linen washers who are afraid to tell the truth, in the pay roll[ people’s looted money].
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Anpu / September 8, 2013
Mr Chandraprema, One killing is too many. Please do a google search for journalists killed in sri Lanka and then add the numbers.
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A. Friend / September 8, 2013
But the man is honest. He does not hide the fact that he works for the government, especially Gota. Not like people like dayan. Now Chandraperuma, you are part of Gota’s propoganda mechine. I guess, its ok to attack you, because some people think you guys are terrorists as well, if you go by the definition.
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Jim softy / September 8, 2013
All therse journalist movement are biased. They have other agendas. See how CT is biased against Buddhist monks.
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gamini / September 8, 2013
See this non biased Puritan speaking? Accusing CT of being biased against the Olcott Buddhist Monks? Jima kohomada ara ‘Kiss Eka’? No wonder Buddha Gaya was bombed a few weeks ago. Thanks to you Buggers the poor devotees in this country will be without a Religion very soon, when they realize the true characters of the Olcott Buddhists like yourself.
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vx / September 8, 2013
This A.C Chandrapprema is wearing Gota’s spectacles,so he can’t look out side by his own way.Sorry to him.
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Kalal / September 8, 2013
This is world famous best selling author of ‘Gota’s War’ which is now the 10 best sellers of New York Times list….. Bestseller, My foot!.
http://www.col3negoriginal.lk/watch.php?id=42064
Click on this above link and listen to what Sarath Fonseka had to say about this joker.
This is one joker who will put MR and Gota in trouble one of these days.
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Agnos / September 8, 2013
This man calls Taraki Sivaram ‘his dear friend’ but then says he was LTTE, and “… LTTE activists carrying out propaganda for a terrorist organization cannot be considered media persons by any stretch of the imagination.”
“The extrajudicial killing of terrorist suspects has to be taken up elsewhere and not in media representations.”
Little wonder that with “dear friends” like C.A.Chandraprema, Rajpal Abeynayake and Dayan Jayatilleka, Sivaram was murdered by the State and these “friends” would all trot out justifications and rationalizations. The fact that he was living openly in Colombo for several years, that if the GoSL had any evidence against him for terrorism beyond his mere writing, they could have simply arrested and prosecuted him, is conveniently forgotten by these “friends.”
Unless Sinhalese society itself starts weeding out such pathetic scum still around as thought “leaders,” I don’t see how SL will see any lasting peace in our lifetime.
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I am no muslim / September 9, 2013
Don’t you know agnos, even black coated lawyer sharks call their elk in kind ‘my learned friend’. You know, you cannot learn these things from evening English classes.
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Agnos / September 10, 2013
Hello Ignoramus,
Sivaram told me in person when he met me in the US that Dayan Jayatilleka, C.A. Chandraprema and Rajpal Abeynayake were his close friends, the latter two perhaps close drinking buddies even up to the time of his death, and when Chandraprema simply verifies that, the interpretation you give belongs to the garbage box.
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gamini / September 8, 2013
Thadi Priyanta trying to play with the numbers to absolve MR regime of having killed Journos for holding dissenting views. He reduces the numbers killed by 50% and feel good that the case for Sri Lanka is not that bad. What a Bloody Joker this bugger is? A despicable character not worthy of being recognized in decent societies or Forums as these.
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I am no muslim / September 9, 2013
This bugger Gamini must be living in a grumpy bedsit. Buggers basement living must be awful. It must be real damp. Otherwise buggers head couldn’t have gone so nutty in autumn.
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Siva Sankaran Sarma / September 9, 2013
Very good expose. I’ve made similar points when LTTE monkeys trot out the list of “journalists” killed in Sri Lanka as part of their banal routine: that the majority of them are LTTE terrorist propagandists (and thus fair game according to NATO) or were killed by the LTTE.
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Punnakku / September 9, 2013
It is in the nature of a Failed Society even those in the respected and responsible profession of journalism transmogrify into willing tools of the fascist State. For their own safety and in ensuring their
own livelihood in an environment a job means everything to their and the survival of their family’s, they commit sins they know are grossly wrong and against the good of the country and its citizens. In a way they also deserve pity because they have no other alternatives to survival – except flight overseas. We have several today in the higher echelons of journalism who fall within this ambit.
As to C.A.C. he falls into different categories. The worst being identified with sheer terror groups whose hands are wet with blood of
many innocent young, educated and politically inclined – then and, arguably, now. Is it “what a way to make a living” or “what the country has been made into”.
Punnakku
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Palayang yako! / September 9, 2013
Punnaku:
You have exposed another side to this piece of …… He is obviously not only a laundryman but an “alugosuwa” for those who hire him.
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I am no muslim / September 9, 2013
Yakkos must be drinking punnakku to have their brains in the backside.
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Percy Jilmart / September 9, 2013
@ Punnakku,
People like Chandraprema, Malinda, Rajpal, Hudson etc. hoodwink themselves into thinking that what they are doing is patriotic. That is why it has been said that patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.
If one day the government manages to find and kill Tisaranee Gunesekara, I wonder how these scoundrels would justify that?
Last week Rajpal had the gall to state on SLBC that not a single journalist was killed after 2008…this was on the “Dasadesin Hathata” programme conducted by toilet mouth Hudson. Any of the CT readers who tunes into the programme that starts everyday at 7.15am will be shocked at the language used to insult those who oppose the MR government. These scoundrels need to remember Newtons 3rd law of every action having an equal and opposite reaction. One day they will have to face the reaction of the people…
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I am no muslim / September 9, 2013
Do you want to read about ‘a Failed Society’? Don’t just make–up things talk bullshit! Find out where latest Hindu- Muslim riots takes place. It is INDIA, stupid.
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justice / September 9, 2013
Chandraprema does admit that some were killed by present and past governments!This is supposed to be just a normal state of affairs!
He only disputes the figures!
The UNHCR findings are not credible,as any ‘outsider’ asking questions from citizens is suspicious, and giving answers inimical to the government is dangerous.
The selection of those interviewed would have been biassed,as UNHCR personnel would have had to obtain the assistance of grama svakas and other state personnel who would have selected only those who would give answers favourable to the government,for fear of ‘repercussions’.
There would have been at least one state person present during the Q & A sessions.
This is why the UNHCR report was not given to Pillay as it was not credible in the view of UNHCR.
GLPeris made much of this report unaware that UNHCR had “discarded” its own report, and gave it to Pillay who preferred to get views of citizens herself, and her suspicions that they and all others were under surveillance were confirmed when she came to know that they had been ‘questioned’ before and after speaking with her.
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Palayang yako! / September 9, 2013
What this Laundryman for the Rajapassas is upto is evident when he says “he was disappointed that Pillay had not made any use of a recent report of a survey conducted by the UN High Commission for Refugees in arriving at her conclusions about the ground situation in the north,” referring to G. L. Peiris’ speech in London after Pillay’s visit.
IT HAS SINCE BEEN PROVED THAT THE “REPORT” THAT OUR MINISTER (AND CHANDRAPREMA)REFER TO DOES NOT EXIST!
Any more lies to add to those in Gota’s War and what you have been writing since, you lackey?
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I am no muslim / September 9, 2013
Aie Yakko, Do you know whatever had happened to dodos? You lot are on your way there too.
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gamani P / September 9, 2013
Oh Chandraprema, Damn sin for you. Where are you living and what is your lifestyle? Get up in the morning, get dressed, go to Gota, do your assigned task for him, go home and again the same thing tomorrow. So, you see and hear only that!!!!
But, what a disgrace to go to that extent to write in favour of killings. Even ONE is too much.Do not let your family and relations read this. You should not have done this to them. The examples given simply show who you are. Shame, shame shame. But this is simply where the country is. People who we thought had a brain up until now have been turned to lupperty followers for the monthly stipend or become racist and followers of a dictatorial family. They will even sit only on a chair that is lower than on what the rulers sit. Shame, shame, shame. How can you EVER face civil society? Perhaps you have also developed a thick skin. We know what has happened to GL. This is worse as you get less baksheesh than him. Or is that wrong too? These type of articles and even some comments show where the country is. Shame, shame, shame …..on all of us.
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I am no muslim / September 9, 2013
gamani P,
Only the stupid would dispute that it is Gota who paved the way to win the war for us. And it is MR who brought us peace and tranquility since. And it is people like Chandraprema who everyone know what Gota had done. I bet you hypocrites are jealous of Chandraprema.
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Patriot / September 9, 2013
Amarasiri is an idiot. After learning a bit about ‘the Big Bang’ he thinks he has become an expert of Astronomy. He thinks ‘the Big Bang’ theory opposes the God’s creation. Then he puts Nivana in line with the One God’s heaven. Many a supporter of the ‘Big Bang’ theory like to say that it is not a church backed theory. I see, Amarasiri also follow those hypocrites like a parrot without looking in to the basics.
The Big Bang theory says, there was a singularity at the beginning just like the God was there at the beginning of his creation. After the initial arguments by Fr Lemaître, Christian church lean hard on the Big Bang theory to rescue the Genesis story of God’s creation. But Amarasiri doesn’t know that part. So much so, Professor Stephen Hawking has become the man that church cannot do without for he is the leading proponent and a stanch backer for the said theory for the last 45 years.
Hawking is not at all shy about his theological conclusion from his cosmological speculations. In page 173 of ‘A Brief History of Time’, Hawkin says; “so long as the universe had a beginning, we could suppose it had a creator. Carl Sagan in his introduction to that most famous book is not afraid to draw theological conclusions either. He filled those pages with the word ‘God’. But there are a lot of tough and unanswered questions abound. And the opponents of the theory say; the Big Bang probably will never ever be proved.
Backers of Big Bang are persistently evading great questions on that singularity. What happened before the big bang? The big bang theorists evade singularity like church evades questions on God. Astronomer Tom Van Flandern had listed at least 30 clear problems against the Big Bang theory. In short, what Flandern pointed out was that the theory has been constantly undergoing ad hoc adjustments in order to accommodate new and unexpected discoveries to the Big bang.
Another critic William C. Mitchell in his book ‘Bye Bye Big Bang Hello Reality’ says; astronomical observations support that our galaxy takes 1/4 billion years to go around just one circle. On that basis, if the Big Bang had occurred say 10 billion years ago, our galaxy would have turned only 40 rotations around itself. These number of rotations are much less if the turnings started at a lower rate. He says; 40 rotations are hardly adequate to form two spirals. He further says that these comments apply to other spiral galaxies as well as our own.
Another plasma physicist Wal Thornhill puts it more bluntly. He says, ‘Forget the glossy astronomy books and magazines – the Big Bang is pure fiction’. He has suggested that the observable universe may actually be trillions of years old. A trillion is a one thousand billion and a billion is thousand million. And a million is ten laks. He describes a scenario in which the current cycle of evolution began over 3 trillion years ago. Stirred first in to life of primordial homogeneous hydrogen plasma, and then differentiated and agglomerated into astronomical structures.
This figure of trillions of years begins to approach the vast time periods suggested in Theosophy too. And Theosophy is a philosophy that aims at direct intuitive knowledge of Gods. Remember, the American national, Col. Ollcott who became a Buddhist in Sri Lanka in the late nineteenth century! He and his assistant, Madam Blavesky are great theosophists. According to theosophy, the current major cycle of evolution – of which our own solar system forms a part – has been in progress for over 155 trillion years. During this period, they say that there have been many planetary and solar re embodiments.
Somehow, scientists observe Galaxies in clusters, and clusters in strings of clusters or super clusters, and that form a web that extends in every direction of the Universe. The numbers are past reaching out any infinity we might be able to imagine. Between these super clusters, are vast tracts of ’empty’ space, probably adrift with non-radiant flotsam and jetsam, and organic building blocks as Chandra Wickramasinghe and Nobel laureate Fred Hoyle says in their book. Of the observed 100’s of millions of galaxies with each galaxy having 100’s of millions of suns and solar systems, Wickramasinghe & Hoyle says there could be many identical suns to our own. Just think of the infinite variety of civilizations that have risen and fallen throughout the endless reaches of space/time.
Well I can go on and on and also relate it to Buddhism But what’s the point? I only wanted to point out your idiocy.
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Jandasa Waduge / September 9, 2013
What was before the big- bang?
Nothing!
It is like asking what is there North of North pole?
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Jandasa Waduge / September 10, 2013
The book by William C Mitchel you quoted to support your position was published in 2002. The most helpful Amazon review of this book has discredited the book in the following manner:
36 of 58 people found the following review helpful
wrong, wrong, wrong
By I. Parrish on October 11, 2006
I became aware of this book (‘Bye Bye Big Bang Hello Reality’ )when the author sent me, an astrophysics PhD candidate at Princeton, a direct e-mail plugging it. While the author apparently is educated enough to have a grasp of the use of scientific vocabulary and jargon, he uses these skills to confuse the public with a thoroughly incorrect discussion of astronomy. For example, he invokes the theory of “tired light” to explain redshifts–a concept that has been throgouhly discredited for the last 50 years. Mitchell instead advances ideas that are patently incorrect about the big bang and galaxy evolution. With the recent work of the WMAP (Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe), we now have the most brilliantly detailed observations of the early universe ever, observations that squarely contradict Mitchell’s crazy theories. I find it kind of amusing that Amazon recommends purchasing the book with one from Arp, as he has also firmly put himself in the crackpot category in recent years. Maybe we can use Amazon recommendations to find all the wrong science out there!
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Patriot / September 12, 2013
Mr. Waduge,
I am not a cosmologist but a retired engineer/lecture who has a special interest in astronomy. So, what I have mentioned above is a summery of bit of things that I read to show the absurdity of the Big Bang theory. ‘Bye Bye Big Bang Hello Reality’ is just one of the books that I read rejecting the Big Bang theory.
Theoretical physicists have used the ‘red shifting’ that you mentioned to argue that galaxies are flying apart at great speeds. They said, if galaxies are moving away from each other, then they all must have been together at sometime, some point. And that point has is no volume but unimaginable density, singularity. And Bang! It exploded, they say. It was just this sort of thinking that led to the concept of the Big Bang that many scientists oppose.
In addition to those that I have mentioned above, Nobel laureate Swedish astrophysicist, Hannes Alfvén proposed that the universe is infinite in space and time and is continuously evolving. One should appreciate that evolving and expanding are not one but two different things. It is in line with ‘steady state’ theory that Fred Hoyle, Thomas Gold, Hermann Bondi and others proposed as an alternative to the Big Bang theory in 1948. Eric J. Lerner in his book ‘The Big Bang Never Happened’ says the Big Bang’s parameters are arbitrary and hypothetical. With examples Lerner also maintains that universe is infinite in time and space. He says that the age of the universe is more likely to be at least several tens of billions of years and not 15 or so billion years as Big Bangers advocate.
From the Buddhist and Hindu cosmological point of view, I wonder whether ‘the steady state theory’ sounds a little more tolerable for in Buddhist cosmology there is no eternal heaven or hell and a finite universe.
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Palayang yako! / September 9, 2013
Patriot:
Everyone knows that you epitomise the saying that “the last refuge of the scoundrel is patriotism.”
However, when you say, “Well I can go on and on and also relate it to Buddhism But what’s the point?” you should really consider what you’ve said because even if your handlers read everything you write because they are contracted to pay you by the word, NOBODY ELSE READS YOUR BILGE! And little wonder why they throw up after about the third sentence and if they don’t they doze off after another half sentence. Apart from anything, you are TERMINALLY BORING! and there really should be a law against you writing to CT for that reason, if no other.
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Patriot / September 9, 2013
‘What’s the point’ because idiots like you don’t understand any of the things I wrote about above.
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Spring Koha / September 10, 2013
After a carefull appraisal of reviews and comments, I have prepared a latest tentative shortlist of nominees for the Gota’s Golden Testicles Award to be be presented at the Gala Journalists Kothu Dinner on the eve of the CHOGM in November (Chief Guest Frederica Jansz – subject to getting a re-entry visa)
Current top three:
1 C A Chandraprema
2 Rajpukka Abeynaike
3 MalaGunda Seneveratne
other lickers shouldn’t lose hope, there is still time to stake your claims.
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Sunil / September 10, 2013
Mr. Chandraprema,with all the cases against you you should be behind bars. Since the files have gone missing or hidden you are the free man thanks to Gotabaya R who is using you for his dirty work or else you know what would happen to you. Did your conscience ever prick you when you wrote a book that was a lie called Gota’s war. When Gota is out of his job back to his previous job in the USA cleaning the floors may be you could also help him with the community work cleaning floors but this time in the prison.
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I am no muslim / September 10, 2013
Your comment is diabolical to say it all in a decent word.
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kali / September 12, 2013
Chandrapreama,
SHOCKING REVELATION
I am not sure whether you are speaking for youself or on behalf of GOSL but whatever the case You have now admitted to something which the GOSL has so far denied every time the issue was raised.
According to you:
If there is anything objectionable in the manner in which they ( THE TAMIL JOURNALISTS ) met with their deaths, they should be classified as extrajudicial killings of terrorist suspects and taken up separately.
Definition of Extrajudicial Killing.
is the killing of a person by governmental authorities without the sanction of any judicial proceeding or legal process.
As you chose to accuse Mrs.Pillai of something which is factually incorrect and in the process admitted to something shocking you need to clarify as I will be writing to UN Banki Moon to take up the issue with GOSL who have some explaining to do.
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kali / September 12, 2013
Chandraprema,
By posting an article of such gravity I am sure you understand the meaning of right to reply and by remaining silent on the matter I take it that you stand by what you have stated regarding the Extra Judicial killing.
I will be writing to the UN Chief Banki Moon with a copy of your Article to take up the issue with GOSL. I will also be writing to the following head of State to take up the issue with GOSL when they attend the CHOGM.
1) Mr.David Cameron
2) Mr.Tonny Abbot
3) Mr.Manmohan Singh
4) Mr.Sharma the Head of the Commonwealth.
Finally after your revelation we can now close the subject of missing persons and let the Ghost to rest as it is now obvious what happened to them.
They have all gone to “PARALOGAM” Courtesy of Gothabaya Rajapakse.
You have also provided Corroborative evidence to confirm you admission of the Extra Judicial Killings that went on under this Leadership
Dharmasiri Lankapeli of the Media Movement for Democracy sent me a list of media persons killed from 2004 to date. The representations made by the media NGOs to Pillay was based on this document.
The extrajudicial killing of terrorist suspects has to be taken up elsewhere and not in media representations. One has to draw the line somewhere. If the names of these LTTE cadres and functionaries is removed from the list of media persons killed since 2004, it goes down by 50%! One can see how Sri Lanka has been falling behind in media freedom indices.
You have the following credentials and you are the ultimate authority on the missing persons so you have a lot to answer.
C.A. Chandraprema is the author of Gota’s War.
There is a saying in Tamil. ” Adika Adika Ammyium Nakarum”.
By persisting we have now cracked the pot and you have admitted to the Extrajudicial Killings and all we need to do is set up a commission for an inquiry on the subject of missing persons an let the Mums and Dads to finally accept their fate and move on.
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crazyoldmansl / September 30, 2013
This man is not a comedian. This man is a killer. He is one of those who bore arms against the JVP after the Indo Sri Lanka accord. He is one of the people who has to be brought before the law if democracy and the rule of law is to be established in Sri Lanka.
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