Bala Nadarajah Iyer

February 22, 2006

His Excellency Mahinda Rajapaksa
President, Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka
Presidential Secretariat
Colombo-1
Sri Lanka

Fax: +94 1 333 703

Dr. Anton Balasingham

Liberation Tigers of
Tamil Eelam Peace Secretariat,
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam,
A9 Road, Kilinochci, Sri Lanka
Fax: +94 21 228 3959

APRIL 29, 2005
Posted: April 29, 2005

Dharmeratnam Sivaram, TamilNet and Daily Mirror
KILLED—CONFIRMED

Sivaram was abducted on the night of April 28 and found dead the next morning from gunshot wounds to the head.

New York, April 29, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the brutal killing of leading Tamil journalist Dharmeratnam Sivaram, who was abducted yesterday and found dead this morning near the capital, Colombo, from gunshot wounds to the head.

Four unidentified men forced Sivaram into a jeep at 10:30 last night as he left a restaurant directly across from the Bambalapitya police station in the capital, according to witness accounts. Police told The Associated Press that they received an anonymous call early today giving the location of Sivaram's body in Talangama, several miles outside of Colombo. The TamilNet news Web site reported that his body was found in a high security area behind the country's parliament building.

Sri Lanka

The fragile cease-fire between the Sri Lankan government and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) deteriorated in 2004, heightening tensions and challenges for the nation and its media. Even after a devastating tsunami in late December killed more than 30,000 people, the divisions held fast and hampered initial relief efforts. Tamil areas of the country, some of the hardest hit, were also among the most difficult for journalists to cover.

New York, August 17, 2004—Amid increased political violence, Bala Nadarajah Iyer, a journalist, writer, and political activist with the opposition Tamil group the Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP), was shot and killed yesterday, August 16, by unidentified assailants in the capital, Colombo.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is investigating whether the murder was related to his journalistic work.