Responding to Sri Lanka's Misinformation

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INDICTMENT AGAINST SRI LANKA
Censorship, Disinformation & Murder of Journalists

Responding to Sri Lanka's Misinformation Campaign

Sara Ananthan
3 November 2000

I wish to thank Tamil Guardian, Tamil Sangam, Tamil Nation and Tamil Canadian for their invaluable service to the Tamil community at this critical juncture. I have addressed all institutions in this same letter since it is an urgent appeal on a common issue, which affects our very own survival and the reputation of the Tamil community in the international arena.

First my sincere thanks to Mr.Puspa Nathan for the invaluable article " Selective Reporting Creates anti-Tamil sentiment Abroad" in the Tamil Guardian dated 9 September 2000.

It was an eye opener - and a timely article.

We have a duty to counter and expose this global misinformation campaign conducted by Sri Lanka with the help of sections of the Brahmin owned Indian press and some Trojan horses within our Tamil community.

As Mr. Puspa Nathan explains, the international media is being manipulated by Sri Lanka. All the news circulating in the international media has originated either from the Sinhala chauvinist press or from sections of the Brahmin owned Indian press.

The Sinhala government has successfully silenced any truth coming out to the international media by the killings of Thinamurasu Atputhan , Kumar Ponnambalam and now Nirmalarajan.

Sri Lanka has persecuted and intimidated every other independent newspaper and journalist - examples are Thinakural, Uthayan, the journalist Manicakavaskar, the Virakesari reporter and others.

Even the unlawful arrest, detention and torture of Red Cross Official Mr. Kishore was part of a plot to silence the NGOs.

Sri Lanka terrorism has even reached abroad. The killing of Elamurasu Gajan in Paris and the recent attempted attack on the eminent lawyer Ms.Karen Parker are a few examples.

The recent SBS Australia TV program is yet another attempt to intimidate and silence even the few voices which are left abroad...

It would seem that Sri Lanka will stoop to any level and will enlist support from any quarter to achieve its ends. In Australia there is even a free newspaper Uthayam to peddle this kind of propaganda...

Mr.Puspa Nathan has written about the skewed chronology of BBC. Other news agencies have similar or worse ones.

Early this year, the BBC web site had a Talking Point on Sri Lanka. I was perplexed to see the BBC moderator (?) cajoling the Sinhalese to write, since he was aghast that only Tamils were presenting their views.

As on cue immediately there after, there were many Sinhala writers masquerading as Tamils with their spins. From the mistakes made on the Tamil sounding names, it was clear who they were. When I wrote my view it was not published...

On another occasion, during the invasion of Jaffna by the Sinhala forces in 1995, I was listening to the BBC radio and there was this Sinhala spin master reporting that 2000 Tigers were trapped in Jaffna. And to my horror I found this disgusting male British voice repeatedly asking: "when are you going to finish them off? when are you going to finish them off?" ...

We must counter and expose this misinformation campaign in the international media since our own survival and our reputation is at stake.

We must publish our own accurate chronology from the 1917 anti Muslim Sri Lanka riots, 1956/61/77/81/83 anti Tamil pogroms - and, in addition all the other atrocities committed by the Sinhala army and Indian army in our Tamil Nation.

We also should expose each and every false article with the correct version so that even a non-Tamil can easily understand. The recent example being the spin by Nirupama Subrmanian/Brahmin owned Hindu's 'Attack on LTTE camp and 20 rebels die'.

At present, our news sources are fragmented... We must galvanise all our resources and set up a think tank and action committee with people selected from the fields of journalism, history, international law and politics. This should be presented in all the web sites so that even a non-Tamil who does not know the history of this ethnic problem can easily understand. As a suggestion, the information may be presented under topics, such as these:

1. The killings of journalists and human rights activists.

The intimidation tortures and murder of journalists and the suppression of free media. We must list each and every case with the supporting threads.

2.Exposing the misinformation in the international media.

The heading and source of distorted versions of news, which affect us in the international media - the sources of misinformation campaign - the true versions of the news with the full coverage.

3. The chronology of crimes against humanity committed by the Sri Lanka Government and Indian army

4.A brief history of Tamils and the recent struggle for survival with links for additional information.

5. List of all known detention centres such as Vavuniya detention centre etc and the plight of those helpless people.

They are denied even the basic necessities, no education for the children, constant harassment and killing by pro government militias and kept in these conditions for nearly 10 years.

6. The plight of Tamil refugees and detention centres in mother India.

The heart wrenching saga of these poor people in crossing the Palk Straits. The number of Eelam people held in Indian jails without trial for years.

7. The details of those people who perished or at least some kind of records.