Committee probing attack on NE journalists concludes inquiry

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 June 2003, 14:52 GMT]
The two-member committee of inquiry headed by the retired High Court Judge Mr. Oliver Weerasena concluded its three-day inquiry into assaults of journalists in the Northeast Friday evening at the Jaffna district secretariat, sources in Jaffna said.

The Chairman of the Committee said at the conclusion of the inquiry that he would submit his report about the alleged attacks on journalists and recommendations to avoid such attacks in future to the Prime Minister.

The other member of the committee is a Senior Assistant Secretary to the Ministry of Mass Communication Mr.E.G.Chandraratne.

The Jaffna head of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) Mr. Ole Brondum Friday appeared voluntarily before the Committee of Inquiry and narrated his first hand experience on the day when the security forces alleged to have attacked journalists at Manipay. Mr. Brondum was at the scene when SLA soldiers manhandled LTTE women cadres by removing their waist belts.

"I saw some Jaffna journalists being beaten by SLA soldiers even after they identified themselves as media persons," SLMM Jaffna head told the committee of inquiry, sources said.

The committee recorded the evidence of four journalists, Mr.P.Jeyanandamoorthy from Batticaloa, Mr.Thavachelvan, Mr. Manohararajah, and Mr.K.Sivapalan all are from Jaffna district who were subjected to attacks by Sri Lankan government security forces.