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FMM calls for inquiry into threat on editor

The Free Media Movement (FMM) has called upon the government to take immediate action to investigate the threat made by Fisheries Minister Mahinda Wijesekera on The Sunday Leader Editor Lasantha Wickrematunge.

In a statement the FMM said that in the previous weeks The Sunday Leader published several investigative articles on wide scale corruption in the Fisheries Ministry.

The first news report on this threatening statement appeared in the August 27 The Sunday Leader newspaper and three parliamentarians who were present when the statement was made, were named in the story. None of them have contradicted the story yet although Minister Wijesekera has released a press statement saying that he did not make such a statement.

According to The Sunday Leader report the Minister had revealed details of a previous plan to kill three newspaper editors by the previous government in which he was a minister too. He had told the three other parliamentarians, according to the report, that there was a plan to kill The Sunday Leader Editor Lasantha Wickrematunge, Ravaya Editor Victor Ivan and Satana Editor Rohana Kumara. He was a member of the planning group and they were able to kill only Satana Editor Rohan Kumara before that government fell.

First it was President Chandrika Kumaratunga on November 8, 2001 in a televised interview who revealed that there was a plan to kill two editors by a group of her ministers. According to her she persuaded her colleagues to abort that plan . Later she admitted that one of the editors targetted was Ravaya Editor Victor Ivan.

Then it was Minister S.B. Dissanayaka when questioned by journalists who said that the President was very angry with the editors of Ravaya and The Sunday Leader and had a plan to destroy them but because of criticism from some cabinet ministers she had to abandon the plan. According to Minister S.B. Dissanayaka he was aware that there was a plan and the President had discussed the plan with him.

"At the same time FMM requests that the government reopen the inquiry into the killing of Satana Editor Rohana Kumara on May 7, 2000 to bring whoever behind the murder to book," the statement added.

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