Chandana Sirimalwatta

Can you tell me the events that led to this arrest?

I got a call on January 28th, around 9.30 pm from the CID saying that they need to record a statement from me about an article which appeared on the Midweek Lanka. The story was about a house that is being built by the Defence Secretary, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa. I told them that I can meet them on the 29th and they said they will contact me. The next day they called me and asked why I did not come to the CID at 10 in the morning as promised. I told them that was not what we agreed on, and they said they will come to the Lanka office.

They came and took me to the CID and asked me some questions about several investigative articles we did on corruption involving top government officials. An officer asked me whether I have anything personal against the Rajapaksa family and I told him that I don’t have any personal grudge against any politician. I also told them that none of these stories are guesswork and that we have evidence to back up everything we wrote.

After taking my statement they said that they have been ordered to take me into custody and told me that because of some stories carried in Lanka, national security has been compromised. They specified two stories, one about the postal vote and another about KP. I told them that we have not revealed any sensitive military secrets in any of these articles and we will never do so. But realizing that they have been ordered by higher authoritiers to detain me I exercised my right to retain legal assistance and thus started my 18 day sojourn at the CID.

What happened during your stay in the CID? What did they grill you on, most?

They continued to question me about the news stories published in the paper and they also questioned me about the finances of the paper. They asked me about how we sustain the operation. I told them that I am in charge of the editorial aspect of the paper and that there is a separate section for finance.

And from what I know they had completed their investigation by February 5, and the officers had sent the report for perusal by the higher ups, but there was an intentional delaying by the high ranking officers in order to keep me in custody.
Also during this period state owned media claimed that the CID has uncovered evidence to prove that we have been in touch with ‘pro terror’ groups. But the CID found nothing that could incriminate us. And finally they had to release me without any charge. But the scary part is that this can happen to anyone; anyone can be arrested, kept in custody for a day, week or month and be released without any charges.

Your arrest is only one in a series of incidents against independent journalists?

Ever since the government won the election it is doing all it can to silence the voice of dissent. And this is not limited to journalists and opposition politicians. When I was in the CID I got to know about an operation which they called “hansa dadayama.” A CID officer had been appointed to compile a list of “Sarath Fonseka sympathizers,” and in this list there were people ranging from Ranil Wickremesinghe and Somawansa Amarasinghe to Fonseka’s caterer. And I got into the list because I did an interview with him and I know that I am not the only journalist in the list.

Every day I saw officers leaving the CID on “hansa dadayama” to arrest, harass and intimidate who they think are pro Sarath Fonseka. But in a way I am lucky because I am a journalist and my arrest attracted a lot of attention. Both local and international media gave so much publicity that the government had to back down. But there are so many people who are being harassed and punished because they did not fall in line with the government’s ideology and they get zero publicity. What about them? This is not about me, this is about the state of democracy in the country and the gradual erosion of our civic rights.

Lankaenews columnist Prageeth Ekneligoda is still missing almost after a month of his disappearance and the government seems to have no interest in locating him?

I met Mrs. Ekneligoda on Thursday and I felt very helpless. The government says that he is in hiding and state owned Dinamina paper has stated that he is hiding in some remote religious place. What are these people trying to do? They are trying to down play the seriousness of this.

This is just an indication of what’s yet to come. If we take a look at any dictatorial regime the first thing they did was to silence the media. That’s what Hitler did, that’s what Idi Amin did, that’s what Pinochet did and that’s what the Burmese junta is doing now.

Let me emphasize once again, this is only the first step. The government will not stop with journalists or trade/student unionists. In due time you might find yourself in jail for blogging, sending a text message, forwarding a mail or talking against the “maharaja.” So I would like to tell the people of this country, what happened to Ekneligoda can very well happen to you and your wife/husband and kids -- you will have to undergo what the Ekneligoda family is going through now.

How will this affect you? Will you also slide into “self censorship” like many journalists?

No I will not. I will not cow down and stop exposing the corruption of the administration. I will always stand by the people who are struggling for their basic rights and I will write against separatism, racism and hatred

I was inspired to become a journalist by the late great Richard de Zoysa; he didn’t back down and ‘self censor’ during the late 80s and he did that knowing very well about the danger. In such moments I always remember the poem “Apolitical Intellectuals” by Otto Rene Castillo, Richard’s favourite poem, “What did you do when the poor suffered, when tenderness and life burned out of them?” Our children will ask us the same question in another 20 years if we keep quiet in the face of injustice today.

Yes, but surely you must feel about your personal security as well?

Yes, I do worry about my personal safety. And I know that there is a culture of impunity in our country. Politically backed goons arrive with the police to attack peaceful demonstrations and that gives them the feeling that they are above the law and they might hurt me or my family.

But what’s the answer? Will everything be ok if I keep quiet? Will things improve? Will other journalists not be harassed? The answer is no. This is bigger than you or me, we are talking about democratic values and individual freedom and human rights. If we don’t unite to protect them no one will be safe. I will keep on writing and fighting because I want everyone to live in a secure environment.

There was a time when people left their homes wondering whether they would return home; that was because of LTTE activity, because of bombs. But today people are faced with the same situation. If you don’t fall in line with the government you can disappear without a trace. What’s the point of defeating the LTTE if that situation has not changed? This is no time to keep quiet, as the saying goes you can run but you cannot hide. The only solution is to stand and fight.

Do you attend the editors meetings with the president?

I have attended some events but I took a decision not to attend any during the election period because I thought that would qualify as accepting bribes.

What do you think about the Emergency law and the Prevention of terrorism act?

There was a time when these were necessary. These laws were needed to defeat terrorism but the LTTE is finished. This is the time for national unification and reestablishing the civil liberties we sacrificed in order to wage the war successfully. And to do so we must get rid of these laws.

I mean these laws are now used to silence dissent. The government claims that although the LTTE has been defeated militarily the concept of separatism still exists. But we must fight ideas with ideas, that’s democracy. You cannot destroy ideas with weapons or laws -- as that line from a famous movie says “ideas are bullet proof.”

If we look at the conduct of the government do you feel that they are trying to fight the concept of separatism? After the presidential election one of the headlines in Dinamina was ‘Fonseka wins the pro LTTE areas’. Imagine how a Tamil or Muslim person who sees that would feel? Imagine how a Sinhalese who voted SF would feel? The government is going out of its way to underline the divide.

But there was a time when Irida Lanka also fell behind the government and called people ‘LTTE sympathizers?’

We started Lanka in 2002 and our aim was to fight the concept of separatism through the written word. I accept that we were ruthless in our attacks against certain individuals who we thought supported and encouraged separatism. I am also humble enough to accept that we made some mistakes too.

But we never ever justified or accepted the government’s method of using violence to silence dissent. If someone is forced to leave the country because of his beliefs, that’s wrong, its unhealthy. Because we know that what goes around comes around, if I didn’t back other journalists in need, no one would have come to my aid today.
We always wrote against the atrocities against civilians. We were always against the governments witch hunting dissenters, and we will continue to support those who are living in exile because of their personal beliefs

The President has won the January 26 election convincingly and the government is trying to get a two thirds majority. What will this mean to the independent media in the next seven years?

The next few years will be difficult, extremely difficult. There will be a lot of despair and we will see a lot of journalists leaving the country. But we must not forget that we have been here before. There were many other oppressive regimes that believed that they will be in power forever. Hitler believed that the Third Reich will last a 1000 years but it only lasted 12, and I believe that ‘it’s darkest before dawn. COURTESY:LAKBIMA NEWS