Church decries murder of Sri Lanka journalist who predicted death

A week after the startling murder of Editor in Chief of the Sunday Leader, Lasantha Wickramatunga, Church leaders along with human rights organisations have condemned and voiced their concerns over escalating ethnic violence in the island nation.

The Christian, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen last week for exposing political corruption and human rights abuses related to the government and the opposition Tamil Tigers.

In a statement, National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka lamented, "The cold blooded murder of Lasantha Wickramatunge has struck the death knell to media freedom in our country" adding, "If this violent trend is not arrested and the rule of law is not respected, Sri Lanka will be drawn in to an abyss of death, destruction and anarchy."

Anglican Bishop Duleep de Chickera of Colombo said in a statement, "The assassination of Lasantha Wickramatunga, in broad daylight on a public road, has sent shock waves of anger, fear and desperation through the country. This deliberate and senseless act ... is part of a wider and worsening strategy to suppress and silence the media."

The incident led to an uproar in the country and Christians joined hands with over 10,000 protesters that included journalists, media groups, lawyers, and human rights organisations, condemning the murder.

The president of the bishops' conference in a statement said, "This trend of attacks on the media and wanton killings do not augur well for the country in any way, and it is our earnest hope that this sub-culture of violence and intimidation be arrested at the earliest."

Lasantha earlier warned his brother Lal that the government would try to kill him, and apprised him of a cupboard containing all his sensitive documents.

In one of the document titled "And then they came for me," published three days after the murder, the 50-year-old journalist had predicted his own death. "When finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me," it read.

"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 honor to belong to all those categories and now especially the last," he wrote.

At least 14 journalists and media workers have been killed in Sri Lanka since 2006, according to Amnesty International. Another 20 have fled overseas after death threats.

The country from several decades has been witnessing on-and-off civil war, predominantly between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a separatist armed organization that fights for the creation of an independent state named Tamil Eelam.

Over 70,000 people have been officially listed as killed in the war since 1983.