Significance of Sivaram’s (Taraki’s) Murder

Dharmeratnam Sivaram (Taraki)

Significance of Sivaram’s (Taraki’s) Murder

Col R Hariharan (retd.)
MI specialist in counter-insurgency intelligence,
served with the IPKF as Head of Intelligence in Sri Lanka.

SAAG Paper no. 1368, 6 May 2005

Dharmaretnam Sivaram, 46, also known by his pseudonym Taraki, was a well-known columnist for the Daily Mirror and a senior editorial board member of the online news service, TamilNet, known for its strong pro-LTTE slant. According to eyewitness quoted by Tamil media he was abducted opposite to Bambalapitya police station in Colombo and spirited away in a car on April 28, 2005. Next morning, police found his bullet ridden body dumped in a paddy field close to Sri Lanka Parliament, located within the perimeters of a High Security Zone.

This was not the first killing of a journalist in Sri Lanka. There is a list of martyred journalists big and small in the troubled history of the island. The victims include Nadesan, correspondent of Virakesari and Balanadaraja Iyer ( Chinna Bala) who edited an anti LTTE daily. Then, why does Sivaram’s killing assume special significance?

There are a few reasons for this.

One was Sivaram’s well rounded personality. He was a compulsive contrarian. He started his public life when he dropped out of Peredaniya University in 1982 to become an activist of the Peoples Organisation for the Liberation of Tamil Eelam (PLOT) under the leadership of Uma Maheswaran. Later, like many other Tamil youth he was disenchanted with PLOT leadership and became a journalist writing in the Daily Mirror and more importantly in the Tamil daily Vira Kesari. He was a strong supporter of Tamil militancy, which slowly turned him into a strong supporter of the Tigers. However, as a political analyst he was widely respected and his writing was avidly read by friends and foes alike. Perhaps he was the best-known international face of Sri Lanka’s journalists. He was the moving force behind the Tamilnet, the pro-LTTE web news network He improved it qualitatively making it into a good, though at times biased, source of news on Tamil Eelam. He was perhaps one person who could have acted as a bridge between Karuna, the breakaway LTTE leader from the east and LTTE leadership to bring about a rapprochement between the two sides because he was on equally friendly terms with both. Sivaram was critical of Karuna for weakening the Tamil cause by raising the issue of easterners. He had been a vehement critic of Sinhala chauvinists, in particular of the Janatha Vimukti Peramuna (JVP) for its obstructive tactics in the conduct of the peace process.

In the course of all these happenings he had created many enemies among militant groups, the establishment, police, political parties and chauvinists of different hues.

JVP had been having a very difficult time with the media. The party had been trying to revamp its relationship, damaged by its mercurial Propaganda Secretary Wimal Weerawansa’s tirades against them. According to media reports he would remove recording equipment of media organizations in meetings and ask the audience to spit in the faces of journalists he identified as traitors. In particular he had warned the editor of the Tamilnet of the serious consequences for his support to Tamil militancy.

The virulence of right wing Sinhala sentiments against Sivaram is evident from the statement of the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), the monks’ party, issued after the murder of Sivaram. It said: “D Sivaram was not an impartial journalist but a terrorist journalist. … This dangerous man called Sivaram has been killed by another terrorist group opposed to the Tigers. … Working in the guise of a journalist, Sivaram was an important character belonging to the fascist Tigers who are crushing the freedom and human rights of Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim people of this country…He reminds us of Hitler's Goebbels. He created the myth that the Tigers' killings are justified. Not only that, he undermined the morale of soldiers engaged in war against the Tigers by giving information for terrorist acts.

“It is shocking that a terrorist journalist who worked behind the scenes to hunt down secret police could be described as 'innocent'...To attempt to portray Sivaram, who was the chief editor of Tamil Net and an advisor to the Tigers, as an impartial journalist is an act of encouraging terrorism.

“The army knew about him encouraging the murder of those opposed to the Tigers. He should have been arrested according to the laws of this country. It was the government's mistake to let him remain free while working as a journalist for terrorists…This (murder) was committed by those that were crushed by people like him who worked in union with the terrorists.”

So the extreme Sinhala fringe had very good reasons to see Sivaram dead. The government has ordered an inquiry into the murder; but undoubtedly the clouds of suspicion are on extreme elements among Sinhalas.

Because of his close association with the Tigers, Sivaram had been the target of Security Forces also. Police had raided his house a few times searching for weapons and material linking him to LTTE. There had been an attempts to kill him before he moved over to Colombo after unidentified men in Batticaloa stabbed him. During the last two years, Security Forces have been losing important intelligence operatives thanks to LTTE’s killing machine. Important among them were police inspectors J Rajaratnam and Jeyaratnam both of whom were kidnapped. Thus there is a good deal of suspicion that the security forces could be behind the killing of Sivaram as a ‘revenge’ to the loss of Jeyaratnam.

Did Karuna have a hand in the killing? This is unlikely, as Karuna does not stand to gain anything either politically or militarily by killing an influential Tamil journalist. Sivaram always felt that the security forces were using the split in LTTE in the east to carry out actions against LTTE in the name of Karuna. (This is also the general line followed by LTTE.) In this context, Sivaram’s comment in his last published article in the Virakesari on April 24, 2005 (extract published from Tamilnet) shows his disappointment with the current situation:

"The struggle for liberation sharpened only because the people realised that they were being taken for a ride. Those same realisations helped keep our struggle on track. If these are to be blunted we will become a race prepared to give up its ideals in return for concessions. It is inevitable that frictions will rise when a government tries to fool an intelligent and politically united community. When these frictions rise, a certain level these governments employ several techniques to prevent the friction transforming into a struggle against them. One such technique is the creation of phantom enemies".

“Sri Lanka forces’ excesses in the east in the name of Karuna gang are on the rise. People of the north and east remain without economic growth or jobs. Scars of the war remain. Thousands of people who have lost their homes, land and whole villages to the Sri Lanka armed forces still live in desperation. The neglect of Tamil language continues. Many ills likes this can be listed. The Tsunami has caused great damage in addition to these difficulties. But there is no solution in sight for any of these. These, however, haven’t created much political disquiet amongst our people. They have not protested in anger that solutions have not been forthcoming. They have the fervour for liberation yet it is not to the extent that they will mass together for political reasons.”

For President Chandrika Kumaratunga the killing of Sivaram could not have come at a more critical time. She is under tremendous pressure both internally and internationally. Her coalition with the JVP is in tatters over the twin issues of the interim self-governing authority proposal of the LTTE and the forming of a joint mechanism with LTTE for distribution of the tsunami aid. JVP has come out with its strong opposition to both the proposals. On the other hand, international pressure on the delay over resolving both the issues and to take the peace process forward is mounting. There are two important international meetings in which the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) is participating in May 2005. The first one scheduled for May 6, 2005 at Geneva is with international NGOs. The second one is with the international Aid Group at Kandy mid-May 2005. At both the meetings the wanton killing of Sivaram is likely to present GOSL in a poor light as an inept government.

The SLFP-JVP divide is likely to further widen as the President has announced that she would go ahead with the implementation of the proposal for a joint mechanism. According to Daily News, she had said, "The government may fall... I might lose the presidency; but those things are not of national interest unlike bringing lasting peace to the country." SLFP’s worsening relation with JVP is not a sudden development. As early as February 2005, an exasperated President Chandrika, referring to JVP had said, "If they want to leave, let them leave. I cannot rule like this. They threaten to leave the government even over paltry issues. They are more interested in getting rid of me than doing away with Prabhakaran". Time may well come when her words find substance. The killing of an internationally known Tamil journalist at a politically crucial time like this can only cause more damage to the President and the GOSL.

Sri Lanka had been witnessing assassinations and killings of many prominent personalities, intellectuals, leaders and hundreds of ordinary people over the last three decades. While every killing hurts some people, in Sivaram’s death Tamils of all shades have lost a frontline champion of their cause and Sri Lankan journalism an uncompromising crusader. As well known columnist Dayan Jayatilleka wrote in his moving tribute to Sivaram, “he held up a mirror” before Sri Lankan society and it would be poorer without him.