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“Tell the truth to the people & refrain from fabrications”

“To break the vicious cycle of violence and promote peace and harmony, fulfill your moral obligation as the fourth estate by ascertaining ground realities through interaction with the people concerned and telling the truth to the nation and the international community” responded Mr.S.P.Tamilselvan when asked to deliver a message to the media by representatives from the Free Media Movement, Sri Lanka Working Journalists Association, Sri Lanka Tamil Journalists Alliance, Sri Lanka Muslim Media Forum, Federation of Media Employees Trade Union met him today 16 May 2006 at the LTTE HQ in Kilinochchi.

At the outset, Mr.Sunanda Deshapriya, Spokesperson, Free Media Movement expressed concern over a website report allegedly suggesting resignation of Tamil Media persons from these outfits and their fear whether this report has the blessings of the LTTE. Mr.Tamilselvan denied any knowledge of such reports and said that the LTTE believes in media freedom and therefore rejected such allegations.

Exerpts of Mr.Tamilselvan’s views:

“The Tamil people do have reservations about the conduct of media in the south, both English and Sinhala. Being eyewitnesses to military atrocities, the Tamil people are shocked to find ill-conceived reporting in the south relating to military violence in the Tamil homeland. Journalists would do well to study the Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) in full in the context of delivering the peace dividend normalcy to the war torn Tamil homeland and justify the level of frustration and anger the Tamil people are pushed into.

Effective implementation of the CFA is the basic requirement to create a positive atmosphere wherein confidence building becomes possible. Take away the GoSL and the LTTE from the equation and look at the problem in a peoples’ perspective. A people who have suffered two decades of a cruel war, numerous displacements that resulted in living under abnormal conditions, the disaster caused by tsunami and a non-productive CFA are naturally a disappointed lot. For these people to continue suffering in silence under military occupation and the alarming incidence of military violence and killings of innocent civilians, is definitely too much to expect. To break this vicious cycle of violence, the government has an obligation to comply with the various clauses of the CFA that ensures normalcy in the life of these people.

As responsible members of the fourth estate, the media persons in the south who care for human suffering, you all need to educate the people in the south of the ground realities existing in military occupied Tamil homeland and allay their imaginary fears vis-à-vis the LTTE. A free media lobby to pressurise the government in implementing the CFA is an absolute necessity now, for that alone can bring about a fear-free normal life to the Tamil people living under the heavy boot of ‘military occupation’, build confidence and make them stake holders in the peace process.

If the government does not take stock of the situation and change course, we are afraid the country would be facing anarchy with the CFA just remaining in paper. The Tamil people and their representatives, the LTTE do not wish a war as a means of resolving political conflict. We are committed to the CFA as long as the government reciprocates this commitment. Our flexibility was well demonstrated in the post-tsunami joint mechanism formulation and our acceptance to talk in Geneva in spite of the adamant stances of the government. But what happened to the Joint Mechanism and the ground situation after Geneva I demonstrate that the government is not serious in its obligations and totally unconcerned about the wanton killings of over 175 Tamil civilians including children by the military and the para-militaries in a post-Geneva background.”

Messrs. Sunanda Desapriya, Udaya Kalupathirana, Sanath Balasooriya, Poddala Jayantha, Dharmasiri Lankapeli, C.P. De Silva, M.T.M. Muzammil and Yasir Laheer, represented their respective media associations.

16 May 2006

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