{"id":21902,"date":"2013-06-10T02:00:52","date_gmt":"2013-06-10T06:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=21902"},"modified":"2013-06-10T02:00:52","modified_gmt":"2013-06-10T06:00:52","slug":"arundika-fernando-statement-in-parliament-about-disappeared-cartoonist-prageeth-ekneligoda-must-be-challenged-human-rights-watch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=21902","title":{"rendered":"Arundika Fernando Statement in Parliament About Disappeared Cartoonist Prageeth Ekneligoda Must be Challenged -Human Rights Watch"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York) \u2013 <\/strong>Sri Lankan authorities should challenge a parliamentarian\u2019s claim as to the whereabouts of a political cartoonist who was forcibly disappeared in 2010 and provide information on his fate. Sri Lankan lawmaker Arundika Fernando told Sri Lanka\u2019s Parliament on June 5, 2013, that Prageeth Ekneligoda, a cartoonist and government critic who has not been seen since leaving work on January 24, 2010, is currently living in hiding in France.<\/p>\n

\u201cSolving the disappearance of Prageeth Ekneligoda and that of thousands of other Sri Lankans over past decades should be a top priority of the Sri Lankan government and its investigative agencies,\u201d said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. \u201cAfter years of no progress in Ekneligoda\u2019s case, any clues about his fate should prompt an intensive investigation, not shrugs by senior government officials.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Sri Lankan government needs to take serious measures to end enforced disappearances, provide information to families on the fate or whereabouts of their relatives, and prosecute all those responsible, Human Rights Watch said. The United Nation\u2019s Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances has recorded 5,671 reported cases of disappearances in Sri Lanka during its 26-year-long civil war, a figure that does not include those unaccounted for during the end stages of the war in 2008-2009 or people \u201cdisappeared\u201d since then.<\/p>\n

Fernando, a member of parliament with the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party, did not elaborate on his claim in parliament. However, on June 7 he said that while in France he had been introduced to Ekneligoda by Manjula Wediwardana, a Sri Lankan journalist living in France. Wediwardana, speaking to the BBC Sinhala service after Fernando\u2019s statement, denied that he did any such thing.<\/p>\n

After Fernando\u2019s statement in parliament, the minister for media and information, Keheliya Rambukwella, told journalists that Fernando\u2019s parliamentary privilege prevented the intelligence agencies from investigating his allegations about Ekneligoda\u2019s whereabouts. Rambukwella later conceded that police could question Fernando, but could not compel him to respond.<\/p>\n

Eknaligoda was well-known for his cartoons critical of the administration of President Mahinda Rajapaksa. The Lanka-e-News, a news website published in English, Sinhala, and Tamil and generally considered to be aligned with the opposition Janatha Vimukthi Peramu\u1e47a (JVP) party, published his work. The government has long claimed to be investigating his disappearance and that of thousands of other Sri Lankans during the armed conflict. Ekneligoda\u2019s wife has accused the Sri Lankan authorities of foot-dragging in probing his disappearance and has spearheaded a campaign to prod them to seriously investigate his possible whereabouts.<\/p>\n

The government\u2019s own post-war Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission expressed alarm at the number of enforced disappearances and recommended the government to urgently investigate these claims. To date no discernable action has been taken. Reports from previous government commissions set up to inquire into disappearances have largely not been made public.<\/p>\n

International law defines an enforced disappearance as the deprivation of a person\u2019s liberty by state officials followed by a refusal to acknowledge the arrest or the fate or whereabouts of the person.<\/p>\n

Fernando\u2019s allegation echoes a similar unsubstantiated claim by a senior government official that Ekneligoda, rather than being the victim of an enforced disappearance, was living abroad. Sri Lanka\u2019s current chief justice of the Supreme Court, Mohan Peiris, told the United Nations Committee Against Torture in November 2011, when he was attorney general, that he had received intelligence that Ekneligoda was living abroad. Peiris subsequently retracted this claim when testifying before the Magistrate\u2019s court in Colombo in June 2012. During his court testimony, Peiris admitted that his allegation about Ekneligoda\u2019s whereabouts had been based on unverified hearsay from a source he was unable to remember.<\/p>\n

The Rajapaksa government has a long history of media harassment and attacks on journalists critical of the government, Human Rights Watch said. Publications \u2212 including electronic media \u2212 that oppose government policies have been subject to censorship, and some have been forced to close down. The leading Tamil opposition newspaper, Uthayan, has faced repeated physical attacks against its journalists and property.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Rajapaksa government\u2019s disregard for the fate of Ekneligoda reflects its broader disregard for the fate of a free press in Sri Lanka,\u201d Adams said.<\/p>\n

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New York) \u2013 Sri Lankan authorities should challenge a parliamentarian\u2019s claim as to the whereabouts of a political cartoonist who was forcibly disappeared in 2010 and provide information on his fate. Sri Lankan lawmaker Arundika Fernando told Sri Lanka\u2019s Parliament on June 5, 2013, that Prageeth Ekneligoda, a cartoonist and government critic who has not …<\/p>\n

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