A commemoration event was held in Jaffna this weekend to mark 16 years since the assassination of Sinnathamby Sivamaharajah, who was a former member of parliament, the veteran chairman of Multi-Purpose Co-operative Society (MPCS) and the Managing Director of Jaffna Tamil daily "Namathu Eelanadu" when he was killed.
Sivamaharajah was shot and killed inside his home in Tellippalai on August 20 2006. His home was located 300 meters inside the Sri Lankan military enforced Valikamam North High Security zone. The killing took place during a curfew. No one has ever been held responsible for his murder.
Colleagues and relatives gathered at a statue erected in his honour in Jaffna, to pay tribute to the slain figure. Local politicians were amongst those who laid flowers and garlanded his statue in commemoration.
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Sivamaharajah was a former MP with the Eelam Revolutionary Organisation of Students' (EROS) and Tamil United Liberation Front's (TULF), before going on to become a senior member of the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK).
In his role as the chairman of the Multi-Purpose Co-operative Society (MPCS) in Tellippalai and president of the Consortium of Valikamam North Public Organizations, he worked extensively with displaced Eelam Tamils.
In 2002, he helped launch "Namathu Eelanadu”, a new Jaffna-daily newspaper. However, as soon as the paper hit the stands, it faced a barrage of threats and intimidation from the Sri Lankan state and its paramilitaries.
In December 2005, its offices were raided by the military and several workers questioned.
In August 2006, Sivamaharajah was shot dead. Reporters Without Borders voiced “dismay” at the killing.
"The journalists and employees of Tamil news media continue to be eliminated at a horrific pace," the press freedom organisation said. "All parties, especially the pro-government Tamil paramilitaries, must stop targeting civilians, journalists and humanitarian workers. The press is again the victim of Sri Lanka's dirty war, and the government is partly to blame for this hellish cycle of violence."
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) would later confer the Mamanithar honour on Sivamaharajah calling him “a great patriot who deeply loved his people and his land”.
“His ideals in life was to fight against military repression and to liberate the Tamil people so that they could live in freedom and with self respect," the LTTE added.
However, the violence did not end there, as attacks on Tamil journalists and media works escalated.
"We deplore the pathetic situation prevailing in Jaffna… where attacks on media persons and media institutions have resumed,” said the North Sri Lanka Journalists Association (NSLJA). “Earlier, a delivery agent from Uthayan daily was shot dead and a store belonging to a newspaper in Nallur was burnt down.”
“"Yesterday night, the Managing Director of Namathu Eelanadu, Sinnathamby Sivamaharajah was shot dead. We have no responses so far from the government, even though we have already informed the uncertain situation in the District citing the shooting attack in the Uthayan Daily office, the continuing killings of newspaper delivery agents, arrests of journalists and intimidations.”
Their appeal to the international community for a halt to attacks on media institutions and workers fell on deaf ears.
As violence escalated, more Tamil journalists would be killed or disappeared, including at “Namathu Eelanadu" where 25-year-old IT staffer at the newspaper Indrakumar Mathan was forcibly disappeared in December 2006.