Taraki Sivaram
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 Dharmeratanam Sivaram |
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| Pseudonym: | Taraki |
|---|---|
| Born: | 11 August 1959 Batticaloa, Sri Lanka |
| Died: | 28 April 2005 |
| Occupation: | author, journalist |
| Nationality: | Sri Lankan |
| Website: | www.tamilnet.com |
Taraki Sivaram or Dharmeratnam Sivaram (11 August 1959– 28 April 2005) was a popular Tamil journalist of Sri Lanka. He was kidnapped by four men in a white van on April 28, 2005, infront of the Bambalapitya police station. His body was found the next day in the district of Himbulala, near Sri Lanka's parliament. He had been beaten and shot in the head.[1]
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[edit] Biography
Sivaram, the well-known and controversial political analyst and a senior editor for Tamilnet.com, was born on August 11, 1959 in Batticaloa, Sri Lanka to a prominent local family with significant land holdings and political connections near the village of Akkaraipattu. He was educated at St. Michael’s College in Batticaloa, and later at Pembroke and Aquinas Colleges in Colombo. He was accepted into the University of Peradeniya in 1982 but soon dropped out due to tensions associated with the first phases of Sri Lanka civil war in 1983 (see Black July pogrom).[1]
| Human Rights in Sri Lanka
Assasinations of Journalists |
|---|
| Aiyathurai Nadesan-Balanadarajah Iyer-K.S.Raja-Mylvaganam Nimalrajan-Richard De Soyza-Thevis Guruge-Taraki Sivaram-Relangi Selvarajah-Nadarajah Atputharajah-I.Shanmugalingam-Subramaniyam Sugirdharajan–Sinnathamby Sivamaharajah |
On September 8, 1988 he married Herly Yogaranjini Poopalapillai of Batticaloa. They eventually had three children: Vaishnavi, Vaitheki, and Seralaathan.[1]
[edit] Political activity
In 1982 Sivaram joined the Gandhian Movement, then a front organization for the People’s Liberation Organization of Tamil Eelam or PLOTE, one of the many Tamil militant groups. After Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict erupted into civil war in 1983, Sivaram, under the alias SR, soon became a PLOTE militant. In 1988, a year after the Indo-Lankan accord was signed, Uma Maheswaran, PLOTE’s leader, appointed Sivaram General Secretary of the Democratic People’s Liberation Front or DPLF, the organization’s registered political party. Sivaram left PLOTE in 1989, after disagreeing with Maheswaran’s attempts to establish firmer relations with the Sinhala nationalist JVP and because of group’s involvement in an abortive coup[2] in the Maldives.[1]
[edit] His career as a journalist
In 1988 with the encouragement of fellow journalist, activist and actor Richard De Zoysa he became a reporter for the UN-funded Inter Press Service (IPS), for whom De Zoysa was a correspondent. In 1989, when The Island newspaper needed a political analyst, De Zoysa suggested Sivaram. The Island editor, Gamini Weerakon, proposed tharaka or star in Sinhalese as Sivaram’s pen name but a sub-editor accidentally printed Taraki instead, giving birth to Sivaram’s nom de plume. It should be noted that in 1990 Sivaram helped identify Richard De Zoysa’s body after De Zoysa was abducted from his home and killed by government forces.[1]
[edit] Popularity
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| Background |
| Origins of the Civil War |
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• Origins of the Civil War |
| LTTE |
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• LTTE • Attributed Terrorist attacks • Child Soldiers |
| Major figures |
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• Mahinda Rajapakse |
| Indian Involvement |
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• Operation Poomalai |
| See also |
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• Military of Sri Lanka |
Sivaram’s Taraki articles combined a personal style with accurate, inside information, and explained military, political, strategic and tactical assumptions of all sides in Sri Lanka’s complex conflict. Moreover, his reading in military science and political philosophy benifited his literacy greatly.[1]
By the early 1990s, Sivaram’s Taraki column had become a must read for many interested in Sri Lanka.[3] As a free-lance journalist, Sivaram, eventually wrote for many newspapers including The Island, The Sunday Times, The Tamil Times of London, The Daily Mirror, and the Tamil newspaper Virakesari. In 1997, Sivaram helped Tamilnet.com reorganize itself into a Tamil news agency with its own string of reporters, and remained a senior editor there until his death. He filed his last story for Tamilnet.com at 7:30 PM on the night he was murdered.[1]
[edit] Collaboration with academics
Due to his grasp of Tamil politics and literature and Sri Lanka’s complex history, he was able to collaborate with many academics. Hence, Sivaram collaborated with historians, political scientists, anthropologists, policy experts, and geographers from many of Sri Lanka’s universities and think tanks, as well as with foreign and foreign-based scholars from (among other schools around the world) the University of Colorado, the University of South Carolina, and Clark University. His most prominent collaborators were Profesor Mark Whittaker, an anthropologist with the University of South Carolina, and Dr. Jude Fernando of Clark University.[1]
[edit] Involement with NGOs
In the mid-1990s many governments and Human Rights NGOs collaborated with Sivaram for advice on local political and military matters. He widely traveled in Europe, Asia, and North America and equally well known to governments, the diplomatic community, and human rights activists. He was killed just ahead of a scheduled trip to Japan to consult with the Japanese government regarding the then current peace process.[1]
[edit] Threat to his life
When Sivaram started receiving death threats, he was requested by his friends and colleagues to move himself and his family out of Sri Lanka. He always refused to leave.[1]
Where else should I die but here? he often declared. Yet in 2004 the police twice searched Sivaram’s home, and various groups political parties such as the JHU and JVP in Sri Lanka publicly threatened him as a n LTTE activist and a terrorist sympathizer.[1]
[edit] International reaction
After his death was reported, governments such as Japan, and international organisations such as Reporters Without Borders[4] and UNESCO[5] officials publicly condemned his murder and requested the government of Sri Lanka to investigate the murder.[1]
[edit] Accusations and investigation
The LTTE accused the government in complicity of his murder.[6] Prior to his murder state owned media outlets since 2001 have accused him of being an LTTE spy,[7][8] leading to the conclusion by some that his death was officially sanctioned (see State terrorism in Sri Lanka). One year later a Tamil man belonging to the PLOTE organisation was apprehended but eyewitnesses refused to identify him as one of the kidnappers.[9] No more activity regarding the government investigation is available.[1]
[edit] Controversy
Sivaram was also accused by Human rights activists such as Rajan Hoole who was critical of Sivaram's role as the Tamilnet.com's editor, that he was involved in the murder of two PLOTE dissidents during his days as a Tamil militant.[10] This report was denied by fellow journalist David Jeyaraj from Canada.[11] However, some activists and writers associated with former PLOTE dissidents have disagreed with Jeyaraj's conclusions.[1].
Jeyaraj wrote that Karuna, a LTTE splinter group leader and a member of a government aligned political-military organisation was personally involved in the murder of Sivaram.[12] Karuna has denied this allegation categorically and blamed the LTTE leadership for his murder in addition to those of Lakshman Kadirgamar and Kumar Ponnambalam.[13]
[edit] See also
[edit] Collection of writings
- 1991 An Insider’s analysis of the Ethnic Conflict in Sri Lanka
- Collection of his writings at Tamilnation.org
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Whitaker, Mark. "Sivaram Dharmeratnam: A Journalist’s life", Tamilnet, 2005-04-29. Retrieved on October 2, 2006.
- ^ Rakshak, Bharat. Operation Cactus. Retrieved on October 2, 2006.
- ^ Sambandan, V.S.. "The end of a dissenter", Frontline, 2005-06-03. Retrieved on October 2, 2006.
- ^ Reporters Without Borders (2006-04-28). Tamilnet editor’s murder still unpunished after one year. Press release. Retrieved on 2006-10-02.
- ^ UNESCO (2005-05-03). UNESCO Director-General Condemns Murder of Sri Lankan Journalist Dharmeratnam Sivaram "Taraki”. Press release. Retrieved on 2006-10-02.
- ^ "LTTE accuses SLA Intelligence, para-militaries for Sivaram's murder", Tamilnet, 2005-04-30. Retrieved on October 2, 2006.
- ^ SRI LANKA. Committee to Protect Journalists (2001). Retrieved on October 2, 2006.
- ^ "CASES 2005: ASIA", Committee to Protect Journalists, 2005-04-29. Retrieved on October 2, 2006.
- ^ "Tamilnet editor's murder still unpunished after one year", International Federation of Journalists, 2005-04-28. Retrieved on October 2, 2006.
- ^ The Murder of Dharmaretnam Sivaram. The Curse of Impunity art II: Defiance, Hope and Betrayal – The Times of Sivaram. University Teachers For Human Rights (Jaffna) (2005-09-09). Retrieved on October 2, 2006.
- ^ D.B.S. Jeyaraj. "From Gun to Pen". Retrieved on October 2, 2006.
- ^ D.B.S. Jeyaraj. "Did Karuna Personally kill "Taraki" Sivaram?". Retrieved on October 2, 2006.
- ^ "LTTE killed journalist Sivaram, Kumar Ponnambalam and Kadirgamar -- Col. Karuna", Asian Tribune, 2005-11-25. Retrieved on October 2, 2006.
[edit] External links
- Learning Politics From Sivaram, The Life and Death of a Revolutionary Tamil Journalist in Sri Lanka
- HRW Country report for 2005
- Amnesty International report on Sri Lanka 2006
- Mourning Sivaram by Qadri Ismail
- Taraki: The selective politics of an assassination
- The man who knew too much -- is now dead by Prof. Tom Plate
- UTHR(J) report on Sivaram
- Taraki Sivaram Dossier by Nadchathiran Chevinthian(Tamil/Bamini font)
