UN petitioned to pressure GoSL for murder inquiry

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 May 2005, 11:16 GMT]
Speakers at a memorial event held in Temple Hall, Paris, condemned the murder of Tamil journalist, Mr Dharmeratnam Sivaram, and urged the United Nation's (UN's) Special Rapporteur on the right to freedom of opinion and expression,Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions and the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on human rights defenders to pressure the Government of Sri Lanka to conduct an independent inquiry into the killing, a press release issued Friday in France by Tamil Center for Human Rights (TCHR) said.

The attendees to the event signed a petition which called for immediate independent inquiry into the brutal killing of Mr. D. Sivaram (Taraki) and stated that there is preponderance of evidence pointing to Sri Lanka government's possible involvement in Sivaram's killing.

The meeting was organised by the Tamil Centre for Human Rights (TCHR), and Tamil media institutions in France, the Tamil Television Network (TTN), Eelamurasu Europe, Eelanadhu and the Tamil Federation.

Editor of Eelanadhu Mr. S. Balachandran, a Tamil paper published from France, Representative of Eelamurasu, Mr. Mani Nagash, Representative of Tamil Television Network (TTN) Mr. Sritharan, General Secretary of the Tamil Centre for Human Rights Mr. S. V. Kirubaharan and Mr. Jacque Capet spoke.

Sivaram was fully aware of the dangers to his life but believed that he cannot waver from practising honest journalism, the speakers said. They strongly condemned the killing and accused the Sri Lankan law enforcement agencies and the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) for not diligently pursuing the leads available to trace the killers.

Only pressure from International Institutions will compel GoSL to hold an impartial inquiry into the murder, speakers said..