Taraki Sivaram
Encyclopedia
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, in front of the Bambalapitya police station. His body was found the next day in the district of Himbulala, near the Parliament of Sri Lanka
. He had been beaten and shot in the head.
.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
).
On September 8, 1988 he married Herly Yogaranjini Poopalapillai of Batticaloa. They eventually had three children: Vaishnavi, Vaitheki, and Seralaathan.
nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna
(JVP) and because of group’s involvement in an abortive coup in the Maldives
.
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. In 1990 Sivaram helped identify Richard De Zoysa’s body after De Zoysa was abducted from his home and killed.
By the early 1990s, Sivaram’s Taraki column had become a must read for many interested in Sri Lanka. 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.
, the University of South Carolina
, and Clark University
. His most prominent collaborators were Professor Mark Whittaker, an anthropologist with the University of South Carolina, and Dr. Jude Fernando of Clark University.
non-governmental organisations (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.
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 Jathika Hela Urumaya
and Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna
in Sri Lanka publicly threatened him as a Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
(LTTE) activist and a terrorist sympathizer.
After his death was reported, governments such as Japan
, and international organisations such as Reporters Without Borders
and UNESCO
officials publicly condemned his murder and requested the government of Sri Lanka to investigate the murder.
). One year later a Tamil man belonging to the PLOTE organisation was apprehended but eyewitnesses refused to identify him as one of the kidnappers. No more activity regarding the government investigation is available.
Reporters Without Borders, a pres freedom organisation, said "The Sri Lankan authorities have regrettably demonstrated a complete lack of will to solve cases of murders and physical attacks against journalists."
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. This report was denied by fellow journalist David Jeyaraj
from Canada. However, some activists and writers associated with former PLOTE dissidents have disagreed with Jeyaraj's conclusions.
Jeyaraj wrote that Karuna
, an LTTE splinter group leader and a member of a government aligned political-military organisation was personally involved in the murder of Sivaram. Karuna has denied this allegation categorically and blamed the LTTE leadership for his murder in addition to those of Lakshman Kadirgamar
and Kumar Ponnambalam
. After the arrest of one suspect, the investigation was abandoned.
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
. He was kidnapped by four men in a white van on April 28, 2005, in front of the Bambalapitya police station. His body was found the next day in the district of Himbulala, near the Parliament of Sri Lanka
Parliament of Sri Lanka
The Parliament of Sri Lanka is the 225-member unicameral legislature of Sri Lanka. The members of Parliament are elected by proportional representation for six-year terms, with universal suffrage. Parliament reserves the power to make all laws...
. He had been beaten and shot in the head.
Biography
Sivaram, the well-known and controversial political analyst and a senior editor for TamilnetTamilnet
TamilNet is a news website that provides news and feature articles on current affairs in Sri Lanka, specifically related to the erstwhile Sri Lankan Civil War...
.com, was born on August 11, 1959 in Batticaloa
Batticaloa
Batticaloa is a city in the Eastern province of Sri Lanka. It is the seat of the Eastern University of Sri Lanka. It is on the east coast, south by south east of Trincomalee, and is situated on an island.-Etymology:...
, 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
Colombo
Colombo is the largest city of Sri Lanka. It is located on the west coast of the island and adjacent to Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte, the capital of Sri Lanka. Colombo is often referred to as the capital of the country, since Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte is a satellite city of Colombo...
. He was accepted into the University of Peradeniya
University of Peradeniya
The University of Peradeniya is a world renowned state university in Sri Lanka, funded by the University Grants Commission...
in 1982 but soon dropped out due to tensions associated with the first phases of Sri Lanka civil war in 1983 (see Black July
Black July
Black July is the commonly used name for the anti-Tamil pogrom and attacks carried out by mobs in Sri Lanka which began on July 23, 1983. The riots occurred following a deadly ambush by a Tamil militant organization known as Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam which killed 13 Sri Lanka Army soldiers...
pogrom
Pogrom
A pogrom is a form of violent riot, a mob attack directed against a minority group, and characterized by killings and destruction of their homes and properties, businesses, and religious centres...
).
On September 8, 1988 he married Herly Yogaranjini Poopalapillai of Batticaloa. They eventually had three children: Vaishnavi, Vaitheki, and Seralaathan.
Political activity
In 1982 Sivaram joined the Gandhian Movement, then a front organization for the People’s Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE), one of the many Tamil organizations. 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 (DPLF), the organization’s registered political party. Sivaram left PLOTE in 1989, after disagreeing with Maheswaran’s attempts to establish firmer relations with the SinhalaSinhalese people
The Sinhalese are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group,forming the majority of Sri Lanka,constituting 74% of the Sri Lankan population.They number approximately 15 million worldwide.The Sinhalese identity is based on language, heritage and religion. The Sinhalese speak Sinhala, an Indo-Aryan language and the...
nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna
Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna
The Janathā Vimukthi Peramuṇa is a Marxist-Leninist, Communist political party in Sri Lanka. The party was involved in two armed uprisings against the ruling governments in 1971 and 1987-89...
(JVP) and because of group’s involvement in an abortive coup in the Maldives
Maldives
The Maldives , , officially Republic of Maldives , also referred to as the Maldive Islands, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean formed by a double chain of twenty-six atolls oriented north-south off India's Lakshadweep islands, between Minicoy Island and...
.
His career as a journalist
In 1988 with the encouragement of fellow journalist, activist and actor Richard De ZoysaRichard de Zoysa
Richard de Zoysa was a well-known Sri Lankan journalist, author, human rights activist and actor, who was abducted and murdered on February 18, 1990. His murder caused widespread outrage inside the country, and is widely believed to have been carried out by a death squad linked to elements within...
he became a reporter for the UN-funded Inter Press Service
Inter Press Service
Inter Press Service is a global news agency. Its main focus is the production of independent news and analysis about events and processes affecting economic, social and political development....
(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. In 1990 Sivaram helped identify Richard De Zoysa’s body after De Zoysa was abducted from his home and killed.
Popularity
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 benefited his literacy greatly.By the early 1990s, Sivaram’s Taraki column had become a must read for many interested in Sri Lanka. As a free-lance journalist, Sivaram, eventually wrote for many newspapers including The Island, The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times (Sri Lanka)
The Sunday Times is a popular Sri Lankan Sunday broadsheet initially published by now defunct Times Group until the early 1980s, when it was taken over by Wijeya Newspapers Ltd...
, The Tamil Times of London, The Daily Mirror
The Daily Mirror
The Daily Mirror is a British national daily tabloid newspaper which was founded in 1903. Twice in its history, from 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its masthead was changed to read simply The Mirror, which is how the paper is often referred to in popular parlance. It had an...
, and the Tamil newspaper Virakesari
Virakesari
Virakesari ta:வீரகேசரி is the name of one of the leading Tamil dailies in Sri Lanka. Virakesari is the oldest and the largest circulated Tamil Newspaper in Sri Lanka. Virakesari is owned by Express Newspapers Limited, a leading print and web media organization in Sri Lanka.- Foundation...
. In 1997, Sivaram helped Tamilnet
Tamilnet
TamilNet is a news website that provides news and feature articles on current affairs in Sri Lanka, specifically related to the erstwhile Sri Lankan Civil War...
.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.
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 ColoradoUniversity of Colorado at Boulder
The University of Colorado Boulder is a public research university located in Boulder, Colorado...
, the University of South Carolina
University of South Carolina
The University of South Carolina is a public, co-educational research university located in Columbia, South Carolina, United States, with 7 surrounding satellite campuses. Its historic campus covers over in downtown Columbia not far from the South Carolina State House...
, and Clark University
Clark University
Clark University is a private research university and liberal arts college in Worcester, Massachusetts.Founded in 1887, it is the oldest educational institution founded as an all-graduate university. Clark now also educates undergraduates...
. His most prominent collaborators were Professor Mark Whittaker, an anthropologist with the University of South Carolina, and Dr. Jude Fernando of Clark University.
Involvement with NGOs
In the mid-1990s many governments and human rightsHuman rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
non-governmental organisations (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
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
to consult with the Japanese government regarding the then current peace process.
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.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 Jathika Hela Urumaya
Jathika Hela Urumaya
The Jathika Hela Urumaya is a political party in Sri Lanka which is led by Buddhist monks. The JHU was launched in February, 2004 by the lay-based, secular Sinhala nationalist political party Sihala Urumaya. Founding members include Kolonnawe Sumangala Thero, Uduwe Dhammaloka Thero, Ellawela...
and Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna
Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna
The Janathā Vimukthi Peramuṇa is a Marxist-Leninist, Communist political party in Sri Lanka. The party was involved in two armed uprisings against the ruling governments in 1971 and 1987-89...
in Sri Lanka publicly threatened him as a Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam was a separatist militant organization formerly based in northern Sri Lanka. Founded in May 1976 by Vellupillai Prabhakaran, it waged a violent secessionist and nationalist campaign to create an independent state in the north and east of Sri Lanka for Tamil...
(LTTE) activist and a terrorist sympathizer.
International reaction
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, and international organisations such as Reporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders is a France-based international non-governmental organization that advocates freedom of the press. It was founded in 1985, by Robert Ménard, Rony Brauman and the journalist Jean-Claude Guillebaud. Jean-François Julliard has served as Secretary General since 2008...
and UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
officials publicly condemned his murder and requested the government of Sri Lanka to investigate the murder.
Accusations and investigation
The LTTE accused the government in complicity of his murder. Prior to his murder state owned media outlets since 2001 have accused him of being an LTTE spy, leading to the conclusion by some that his death was officially sanctioned (see State terrorism in Sri LankaState terrorism in Sri Lanka
Various non-governmental organizations and individuals have accused the Sri Lankan government of committing state terrorism. These claims allege that much of the Sri Lankan government's handling of insurgent groups dating from 1956, including the civil war against Tamil militant groups and the...
). One year later a Tamil man belonging to the PLOTE organisation was apprehended but eyewitnesses refused to identify him as one of the kidnappers. No more activity regarding the government investigation is available.
Reporters Without Borders, a pres freedom organisation, said "The Sri Lankan authorities have regrettably demonstrated a complete lack of will to solve cases of murders and physical attacks against journalists."
Controversy
Sivaram was also accused by human rightsHuman rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
activists such as Rajan Hoole
Rajan Hoole
Michael Richard Ratnarajan Hoole known as Rajan Hoole is a Tamil Human Rights activist and a co founder, along with the late Ranjani Thiranagama, of University Teachers for Human Rights, Jaffna branch, while affiliated to the Department of Mathematics, University of Jaffna. He is the eldest son of...
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. This report was denied by fellow journalist David Jeyaraj
David Jeyaraj
David Buell Jeyaraj is a freelance Canadian journalist. His articles appear under the name D.B.S Jeyaraj, the initials stand for David Buell Sabapathy.- Biography :...
from Canada. However, some activists and writers associated with former PLOTE dissidents have disagreed with Jeyaraj's conclusions.
Jeyaraj wrote that Karuna
Colonel Karuna
Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan is a Sri Lankan politician and former militant. After fighting for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam for over 20 years, he rose to prominence as the leader of the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal , a breakaway faction of the Tamil Tigers.After giving up arms and...
, an LTTE splinter group leader and a member of a government aligned political-military organisation was personally involved in the murder of Sivaram. Karuna has denied this allegation categorically and blamed the LTTE leadership for his murder in addition to those of Lakshman Kadirgamar
Lakshman Kadirgamar
Sri Lankabhimanya Lakshman Kadirgamar PC was a Sri Lankan diplomat, politician and a lawyer. He served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Sri Lanka from 1994 to 2001 and again from April 2004 until his assassination in August 2005...
and Kumar Ponnambalam
Kumar Ponnambalam
Kumar Ponnambalam was a prominent defence lawyer and a controversial minority Tamil nationalist politician from Sri Lanka...
. After the arrest of one suspect, the investigation was abandoned.
See also
- TamilnetTamilnetTamilNet is a news website that provides news and feature articles on current affairs in Sri Lanka, specifically related to the erstwhile Sri Lankan Civil War...
- Interview with Dharmaratnam Sivaram
Collection of writings
- 1991 An Insider’s analysis of the Ethnic Conflict in Sri Lanka
- Collection of his writings at Tamilnation.org
External links
- Learning Politics From Sivaram, The Life and Death of a Revolutionary Tamil Journalist in Sri Lanka
- Taraki Sivaram Dossier by Nadchathiran Chevinthian(Tamil/Bamini font)
- 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