In the wake of my death I know you will make all the usual sanctimonious noises and call upon the police to hold a swift and thorough inquiry. But like all the inquiries you have ordered in the past, nothing will come of this one, too. For truth be told, we both know who will be behind my death, but dare not call his name. Not just my life, but yours too, depends on it.
Sadly, for all the dreams you had for our country in your younger days, in just three years you have reduced it to rubble. In the name of patriotism you have trampled on human rights, nurtured unbridled corruption and squandered public money like no other President before you. Indeed, your conduct has been like a small child suddenly let loose in a toyshop. That analogy is perhaps inapt because no child could have caused so much blood to be spilled on this land as you have, or trampled on the rights of its citizens as you do. Although you are now so drunk with power that you cannot see it, you will come to regret your sons having so rich an inheritance of blood. It can only bring tragedy. As for me, it is with a clear conscience that I go to meet my Maker. I wish, when your time finally comes, you could do the same. I wish.
Wickrematunge's prediction from the grave has come true as no one has been arrested or charged with his murder. A journalist with the Canberra Times reported that the person referenced at "dare not call his name" is Mahinda's brother, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the minister of defense.
See Gotabaya squirm - eyes bugging, hands flailing, voice pitch rising, changing the subject, casting suspicion on all the former presidents - when asked about Wickrematunge's death in a BBC interview last February. He derides Wickrematunge as a "tabloid writer" and said it was "just another murder."
He ends the interview by calling dissent and criticism of the government 'treason.' Nice guy.
Only 31% supported the introduction of sharia or Islamic law, although 60% backed the government regulating a "dress code" for Muslims.
JAKARTA (AFP)--An overwhelming majority of senior Muslim clerics in Indonesia's capital reject the use of suicide bombings and believe democracy is the best form of government, a report said Friday.
A survey of 250 clerics in charge of running mosques in Jakarta found 75% condemn the use of suicide bombers as a weapon in jihad or "holy war," the Jakarta Post daily reported.
The survey conducted by Jakarta's Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University also found that 78% of the clerics agreed democracy was the best form of government for the world's largest Muslim-majority country.
Only 31% supported the introduction of sharia or Islamic law, although 60% backed the government regulating a "dress code" for Muslims.
"Generally, the majority of mosques in Jakarta embrace moderate Islamic ideas and thought. Nevertheless, among the total is a small number with a tendency toward increasingly radical Islamic ideas," researcher Ridwan Al Makassary was quoted as saying.
Indonesia has struggled with extremism in the democratic era since the 1998 fall of dictator Suharto's 32-year New Order regime.
The country has been hit by a string of bombings including 2002 and 2005 attacks in Bali that killed over 200 people, but hasn't suffered a major attack in recent years.
Sri Lankan editor: 'Let there be no doubt that whatever sacrifices we journalists make, they are not made for our own glory or enrichment: they are made for you. Whether you deserve their sacrifice is another matter. As for me, God knows I tried.'
Angry protesters thronged Lake House roundabout in Colombo Friday demanding that the killers of The Sunday Leader Editor in Chief Lasantha Wickrematunge be brought to justice.
No other profession calls on its practitioners to lay down their lives for their art save the armed forces and, in Sri Lanka, journalism. In the course of the past few years, the independent media have increasingly come under attack. Electronic and print-media institutions have been burnt, bombed, sealed and coerced. Countless journalists have been harassed, threatened and killed. It has been my honour to belong to all those categories and now especially the last.
I have been in the business of journalism a good long time. Indeed, 2009 will be The Sunday Leader's 15th year. Many things have changed in Sri Lanka during that time, and it does not need me to tell you that the greater part of that change has been for the worse. We find ourselves in the midst of a civil war ruthlessly prosecuted by protagonists whose bloodlust knows no bounds. Terror, whether perpetrated by terrorists or the state, has become the order of the day. Indeed, murder has become the primary tool whereby the state seeks to control the organs of liberty. Today it is the journalists, tomorrow it will be the judges. For neither group have the risks ever been higher or the stakes lower.
Why then do we do it? I often wonder that. After all, I too am a husband, and the father of three wonderful children. I too have responsibilities and obligations that transcend my profession, be it the law or journalism. Is it worth the risk? Many people tell me it is not. Friends tell me to revert to the bar, and goodness knows it offers a better and safer livelihood. Others, including political leaders on both sides, have at various times sought to induce me to take to politics, going so far as to offer me ministries of my choice. Diplomats, recognising the risk journalists face in Sri Lanka, have offered me safe passage and the right of residence in their countries. Whatever else I may have been stuck for, I have not been stuck for choice.
But there is a calling that is yet above high office, fame, lucre and security. It is the call of conscience.
The Sunday Leader has been a controversial newspaper because we say it like we see it: whether it be a spade, a thief or a murderer, we call it by that name. We do not hide behind euphemism. The investigative articles we print are supported by documentary evidence thanks to the public-spiritedness of citizens who at great risk to themselves pass on this material to us. We have exposed scandal after scandal, and never once in these 15 years has anyone proved us wrong or successfully prosecuted us.
The free media serve as a mirror in which the public can see itself sans mascara and styling gel. From us you learn the state of your nation, and especially its management by the people you elected to give your children a better future. Sometimes the image you see in that mirror is not a pleasant one. But while you may grumble in the privacy of your armchair, the journalists who hold the mirror up to you do so publicly and at great risk to themselves. That is our calling, and we do not shirk it.
Every newspaper has its angle, and we do not hide the fact that we have ours. Our commitment is to see Sri Lanka as a transparent, secular, liberal democracy. Think about those words, for they each has profound meaning. Transparent because government must be openly accountable to the people and never abuse their trust. Secular because in a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural society such as ours, secularism offers the only common ground by which we might all be united. Liberal because we recognise that all human beings are created different, and we need to accept others for what they are and not what we would like them to be. And democratic... well, if you need me to explain why that is important, you'd best stop buying this paper.
The Sunday Leader has never sought safety by unquestioningly articulating the majority view. Let's face it, that is the way to sell newspapers. On the contrary, as our opinion pieces over the years amply demonstrate, we often voice ideas that many people find distasteful. For example, we have consistently espoused the view that while separatist terrorism must be eradicated, it is more important to address the root causes of terrorism, and urged government to view Sri Lanka's ethnic strife in the context of history and not through the telescope of terrorism. We have also agitated against state terrorism in the so-called war against terror, and made no secret of our horror that Sri Lanka is the only country in the world routinely to bomb its own citizens. For these views we have been labelled traitors, and if this be treachery, we wear that label proudly.
'The collective activities of the human rights activists in Iran have angered the Iranian authorities so much that they have illegally ordered the closing down of two NGOs.'
TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Nobel Peace Prize laureate and human rights campaigner Shirin Ebadi was briefly taken into custody Sunday as Iranian authorities raided and indefinitely shut down two of her offices in Tehran, she told CNN.
The Iranian authorities never gave her an explanation for the crackdown, and she was later released, she said, adding that there were no arrests in the raid, but the offices remain closed.
Speaking from her home, Ebadi said the closed offices belong to two non-governmental organizations funded by her Nobel Peace Prize earnings: the Center for Participation in Clearing Mine Areas, which helps victims of landmines in Iran; and Defenders of Human Rights Center, founded five years ago to report human rights violations in Iran, defend political prisoners, and support families of those prisoners.
Ebadi said Iranian authorities had no written justification for Sunday's raid, which she described as illegal.
"The collective activities of the human rights activists in Iran have angered the Iranian authorities so much that they have illegally ordered the closing down of two NGOs," she said.
Ebadi won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003 for her human rights work, making her the first Iranian to receive the honor. She is one of the most prominent Muslim women in the world and serves as the president of the Defenders of Human Rights Center.
In August 2006, Ebadi said the Iranian government informed her that the agency is "illegal" and vowed to arrest those who continued to work there.
"Of course, me and the other members of the center do not intend to shut down the center and we shall continue our activities," she said at the time.
She said the center -- which has operated for over five years in Tehran -- "is a member of the International Federation for Human Rights" and "has also been awarded a human rights prize by the Human Rights National Commission in France."
"This center is very well known and credible in Iran," she said in 2006.
The Nobel committee has described Ebadi as a champion of human rights who "sees no conflict between Islam and fundamental human rights.
With its much-criticized clause allowing civilian groups to enforce public decency, the ban's real purpose was to allow Islamic hardliners to act as 'moral police.'
Wearing nothing but feathers and a long, tapering gourd jutting from his groin, Papuan tribesman Suroba says the Indonesian government cannot force him to wear pants.
Suroba, who estimates his age in his sixties, remembers the last time the government launched a campaign to eradicate the penis gourd, known here as a koteka, in the 1970s. It was a dismal failure.
"Back then we were wearing our traditional clothes, like the koteka, and we're still wearing them now," he said.
The latest threat to the koteka, and traditions like it, is a new anti-pornography law passed in October by mostly Muslim lawmakers in the capital Jakarta, 3,500 kilometers (2,000 miles) away.
The law, which criminalizes all works and "bodily movements" deemed obscene and capable of violating public morality, was pushed through by Islamic parties despite stiff opposition and years of rancorous debate.
Opponents of the law say its definition of pornography is too broad and could threaten local traditions, from nude temple carvings on Hindu-majority Bali island to tribal dances and phallic totems on Papua, a vast territory of untouched forests and mountains on the western end of New Guinea island.
Thousands of people on Bali have protested, and activists and politicians from Indonesia's far-flung non-Muslim regions, such as mainly Christian and animist Papua, have begun murmuring of civil disobedience.
....
"Wrecked the feeling of togetherness" Opposition lawmaker Eva Sundari, who voted against the law in parliament, said it could have its greatest impact outside of Papua in areas where Muslims predominate.
With its much-criticized clause allowing civilian groups to enforce public decency, its real purpose was to allow Islamic hardliners to act as "moral police," she said.
"The goal of this law is to become a legal umbrella for groups pushing for sharia (Islamic law)," she said.
But however it is enforced, many say the law has already damaged inter-communal bonds that have held together a diverse country that spans thousands of islands.
"The law has already wrecked the feeling of togetherness," Sundari said.
