'Rajapaksa regime killed Lasantha'

he murder of 'Sunday Leader' Editor is part of an anti-democratic conspiracy, opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe has said, claiming that the Rajapaksa regime is rendering the southern people helpless by killing its political opponents.

At a media briefing in Colombo today (Jan. 08th), convened by parties in the joint opposition, he said this was similar to the manner in which the LTTE had decimated the Tamils their political, religious and cultural leaderships.

Mr. Wickremesinghe accused the government of president Mahinda Rajapaksa of being responsible for the killing of the senior journalist, and said police investigations cannot be trusted as the entire regime was immersed in fraud and corruption.

He said measures would be taken to secure an international level inquiry into the Lasantha Wickrematunga murder as well as the attack on Sirasa media network's studio complex.

Threats to the media by minister Dallas Alahapperuma and several other government strongmen not to give publicity to the two incidents go on to prove that the government had a clear link to them, he said.

Also speaking here, leader of SLMC Rauff Hakeem said this killing would spell the beginning of the end of the present regime.

The repression against the media worsened to these levels just days after the president took over the media ministry, he said, adding that this situation is second only to Iraq and that it would not be surprising if Sri Lanka overtakes that country in the future.

"The murder of Mr. Lasantha Wickrematunga gives a signal to political leaders and journalists to take their responsibilities more seriously and safeguard media freedom and democracy."

Leader of SLFP Mahajana Wing Mangala Samaraweera also addressed the media briefing.

The climax in the repression of free media is the murder of Lasantha Wickrematunga, he said, adding that since gaining power in 2006, president Mahinda Rajapaksa's dictatorial rage has worsened with the killings of politicians J. Pararajasingham, N. Raviraj and T. Maheswaran.

He too, cast doubts on the police investigations into this latest high profile killing, saying that "it is the IGP who lights firecrackers for the present regime."

Mr. Samaraweera said, "Lasantha Wickrematunga had used his pen to point out shortcomings of every government in the past two decades. It is the Rajapaksa regime that runs these killer gangs. It is the same gang that threw bombs, fired at and set fire to Sirasa media network's studio complex a couple of days ago."

He noted that Mr. Wickrematunga had been a person, whom the Rajapaksa regime found it impossible to silence.

"Soon after he became president, Mahinda had telephoned Lasantha and abused him in raw filth," said the SLFP (M) leader.

"Lasantha had been readying to handover to court some documents pertaining to Gotabhaya Rajapaksa. He was also going to write for next Sunday paper about a massive swindle at the Defence Ministry. He had also planned to write about a secret decision taken at yesterday's cabinet meeting. That is why he was killed like this," he added.

Democratic People's Front leader Mano Ganeshan and UNP general secretary Tissa Attanayake and party MP Lakshman Kiriella also attended the media briefing.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Lasantha Wickrematunga
• unp
• ranil wickramasinghe
• mahinda rajapakse
• sri lanka army
• ltte
• war sri lanka
• s. b. dissanayake

[paraltte]

MR The Nation With You 300%.UNP got blood on there hand.Death to LTTE.Death to UNP.

[rainbowcolors69]

Rajiv you idiot. Did you not hear that the suspect arrested for destroying Sirasa TV studio is a UNP local council member from Nawala. Go read it first. We know who the conspirators are now. Public will want an answer from that idiot Ranil, Ravi and such like. Why silent?

[Userzxcvbnm]

bjeyas You are a fake imposter. You are a government supporter trying to sling mud at Lasantha

[sonofthedestroyer]

Lasantha DID NOT support LTTE. He condemned LTTE. But he was killed because exposed the Government as also being terrorists like the LTTE.

[brianturner28]

Angelo the BEST SRI LANKAN in the world is also going to show proof of what he has done, please provide slips as per you are in the US to the Poor or to anything is SL. This will prove that ANGELO will come back with comments but not produce anything. trust me

[brianturner28]

I am willing to all people on here to show what MY UNCLE has done for SL, Angelo the BEST SRI LANKAN in the world is also going to show proof of what he has done, please provide slips as per you are in the US to the Poor or to anything is SL. This will prove that ANGELO will come back with comments but not produce anything. trust me

[brianturner28]

You live in the US, must be a bush supporter. So you agree to killing and you get a medal. what if it was your parents, you would be singing another tune. Angelo which is an Italian name, good on you, everytime you say something you look more like a moron

[balarajyogi]

Stop the genocid on tamils!

The World´s worst liars and Media manipulators! You Sri Lankan Government!

[theNEWSmaster]

when will this people get to know the truth?

[angelo908638]

Who ever Killed that traitor Lasantha.. should be awarded a Hon. medal. ( possibly to Ravi Karunanayake)

Don't forget the fact that Lasantha and his NGO buddies were LTTE sympathizers. .

[frankmen3]

Rajiv malli. Please stop this. You're not attacking Rajapakse, you're attacking the whole country. Dharmaraja sudents don't do this (difficult to believe you're a Dharmaraja student). Most of my life, I have seen the killings by UNP as well.