The horrendous attack on the Depanama Studios of the Sirasa/Shakthi/MTV TV channels on Tuesday morning followed on Thursday morning by the cowardly killing of newspaper editor Lasantha Wickrematunga is symptomatic of the collapsing rule of law in our country. In both instances, the criminal goons were confident that they enjoyed immunity. The killing of Lasantha Wickrematunge was carried out in broad daylight and on a much used main thoroughfare. At the Depanama Studios, the well armed masked gang, who arrived in an number plateless white van, took their own time to ensure that every item of equipment was destroyed. Witnesses have reported that the attack was well planned and the gang knew what they wanted to do and went about doing it with military precision. The Police were reportedly informed of a suspicious vehicle outside the studios even before the gang entered the premises. But no one came to investigate, despite the gang having spent around an hour inside the studios destroying all equipment.

Government Ministers, including the President, have condemned the incident, as they have done as regards the killing of Lasantha Wickrematunge. The Police say they are investigating but have yet to arrest any suspects. In the meantime, the owners of the studios have offered huge sums as rewards for any information, no doubt hoping that the size of the reward will tempt someone involved in the planning or with some knowledge of the attack to double-cross colleagues. We can be sure that we will soon have reports of suspects being arrested, as has happened before in the case of extra-judicial killings and abductions. The authorities will expect that such arrests to satisfy the public that investigations have been carried out and the perpetrators arrested. But in the case of earlier extra-judicial killings and abductions, the arrested ‘suspects’ were released in due course for ‘lack of evidence’. Already we have one Minister saying that no witnesses have come forward to give evidence in the Wickrematunge killing. This was despite it taking place in broad daylight on a busy road and in close proximity to some camps of the security forces. Can anyone blame the public for not coming forward when they have strong suspicions about the identity of actual perpetrators?

The Government has to take full responsibility not only for the collapsing rule of law but also for the eroding of all institutions of democratic governance. The 17th Amendment remains a dead letter and the President and his Government remain totally indifferent to this brazen violation of the Constitution. The respect for the rule of law, for independent commissions to ensure the independence of the law enforcement authorities and the public service and the need to have checks and balances to prevent abuse of power have been nonchalantly disregarded. Added to this is the intimidation, abduction, arrests and killing of journalists to ensure a conforming media. This non-adherence to the rule of law by those in authority has enabled underworld gangs, extortionists and other lawless elements to engage in crime and violence. Crime and violence thus unleashed will be difficult to control even by those who have initiated the violence. It has destroyed decency and dignity in the very fabric of our society.

A Nation’s Last Hurrah

Lasantha Wickrematunge was a courageous newspaper editor who did not mince words when he wanted to criticize someone whom he thought needed to be censured. His editorials were always hard-hitting, as was his last editorial written four days before his assassination. We quote extensively from it both as a tribute to a brave journalist and also to show why powerful figures and those around them considered him to be an inconvenient impediment to their exercise of unbridled power:

"Winning the war? Then there must be elections around the corner. It is no secret that the war has become Mahinda Rajapaksa’s recipe for electoral success; but what surprises many is that he is able, time and time again, to persuade the Sri Lankan people - or at least his Sinhala-Buddhist constituency - that victory is but a gunshot away.

No one doubts that with an investment of nearly Rs. 200 billion per year, and the willingness to expend a few thousand lives and limbs, the government can in the course of 2009 credibly claim to have won not just Killinochchi, but all of the north. The Rs. 200 billion we plan to spend on bombing the life out of the LTTE’s remaining 4,000 cadres, after all, should do the job. As for the lives, there’s still plenty of space left on those stone tablets on the doormat of parliament for them. And as for limbs, where would Jaipur be if not for the steady stream of feet shipped to help keep the armed forces on the hop?

Granted that after ‘winning’ the war, just as is the case in the east, the north too, will be converted into an occupied territory. A matrix of army camps will dot the landscape, helping to keep errant Tamils from getting any funny ideas, and the Lion Ensign will flutter briskly in the katchan winds of the Wanni. It will not be the meek, but Douglas Devananda, who will inherit the earth. The meek, after all, will be arranged in neat little rows in their respective refugee camps, eating their lunch from the tinsel packs dispensed by the World Food Programme."

Wickrematunge was alive to the dangers he himself faced. And so he went on to comment about the threats being faced by the media: "Who then survives to provide the public with a contrarian view? Much of the media has been bought, or cajoled and bullied into silence. Dozens of journalists are dead and others have been incarcerated without trial for months. The electronic media operate under the continuing threat of having their licenses revoked unless they toe the government’s line. After all, it has happened that they have been summarily shut down. New licenses, in turn, are issued only to that section of the business community subscribing to the government’s communal thinking…….

"With the opposition curled up into a ball, the government’s most formidable adversary has become the Supreme Court, whose justices (praise be to them!) have had the gumption to dispense justice regardless of the political consequences. In the wake of their order to reduce the price of petrol by Rs 20 a litre, the government claimed by innuendo that traitors were trying to sabotage the war effort. Amazingly now, the government itself has cut the prices of diesel and LPG in a manner that will result in an even larger loss of revenue to the state. Where then, does the treachery lie? Who are the traitors now?"

The Army’s Advance in the North

The terrorism unleashed in Colombo against opponents of the Government have somewhat overshadowed significant gains that the security forces have made in re-capturing territory under LTTE control. That was not the script that the Government election handlers wanted. They would have wished the euphoric sense of triumphalism to remain at least until election day. They would be hoping for another major victory to come before election day.

There is no doubt that the security forces, with vast superiority in numbers and equipment and the benefit of co-ordinated sea, air and ground operations, will re-take all the territory now under LTTE control. It may be a matter of weeks or months or even longer, but the re-take will happen. Then the LTTE will go back to their underground days and operate as a guerilla outfit. It is a moot point if they are more dangerous fighting guerilla warfare or as a ragtag group trying to assert themselves in conventional operations. The indiscriminate and targeted killings they carried out earlier in Anuradhapura, Kandy, Colombo, Moneragala, Habarana and other places was as a guerilla force. But they have also killed and been killed in large numbers in conventional war in the North and East.

This raises the concern if the human cost, on both sides, is worth the present strategy of going for over-kill. There is no doubt that, in the end, the Government is going to be able to re-gain all the territory. But is there not another way, albeit a slower way, to prevent the loss of young lives among fighters on both sides, and also of civilians caught up in the crossfire. Comparison with the Israeli methods in Gaza may not be out of place. There, after expelling journalists and others capable of independent reporting, the Israel Army has gone on an air and ground offensive against the Hamas in Gaza. There are credible reports of hundreds of civilians being killed as a result of Israel Army operations. Only a couple of days ago, the International Red Cross reported having found 15 bodies and several children, emaciated but still alive, buried under the rubble of destroyed homes and accused the Israeli Army of preventing ambulances from taking them to Hospital for four days. The ICRC in Geneva issued a statement that the conduct of the Israeli military was unacceptable and that they had failed to meet their obligations under international humanitarian law. The Israeli ground forces have now entered Gaza and seem likely to occupy it, despite calls for a cease-fire and condemnation of their methods by the international community, including Sri Lanka.

Addressing the political causes of a conflict and observing humanitarian obligations may prolong the conflict but that is the only sure and lasting way to end the conflict. Employing the LTTE’s terrorist method of eliminating those who hold a different view, using any method to hold on to power and showing no concern for the hardships faced by the powerless will be self-defeating in the end. Arrogance of power goes before a fall, as the LTTE leader must now be realising.