J.S. Tissainayagam is a Sri Lankan journalist. He has just been sentenced to 20 year's hard labour on charges of inciting terrorism and racial hatred. His "crime"?
Tissainayagam's indictment was based on passages from two articles which expressed critical opinions about the government's treatment of Tamil civilians affected by armed conflict. A July 2006 editorial headlined, "Providing security to Tamils now will define northeastern politics of the future" concluded: "It is fairly obvious that the government is not going to offer them any protection. In fact it is the state security forces that are the main perpetrator of the killings."Expose war crimes, go to jail. That's the modern Sri Lanka.A second article published in November 2006 addressed the humanitarian situation in the eastern town of Vaharai, where warfare included attacks on civilian areas. It accused the government of starving and endangering civilians to further political and strategic military objectives.
