 A gunman shot and killed the outspoken editor of a newspaper that often clashed with politicians on Thursday in the second assault on the media on the Indian Ocean island in three days. Sunday Leader chief editor Lasantha Wickramatunga was shot while sitting in a car stuck in rush hour traffic. He later died on the operating table as doctors tried to save him.
"The gunman smashed the window of the vehicle and shot at him," his brother Lal Wickramatunga told Reuters. The Sunday Leader has been locked in court battles with many politicians over corruption, including the president's brother, Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa. He sued for defamation over stories criticizing the war and alleging procurement graft. Press rights group Reporters Without Borders criticized President Mahinda Rajapaksa and state media after the killing, saying they had "incited hatred against him and allowed an outrageous level of impunity to develop as regards violence against the press." Rajapaksa in a statement on Thursday condemned the killing and ordered an investigation into a man he called a close friend and courageous journalist. "This heinous crime points to the grave dangers faced by ... our country, and the existence of forces that will go to the furthest extremes in using terror and criminality to damage our social fabric and bring disrepute to the country," he said. The Leader printing press was destroyed in 2007 in an arson attack. Wickramatunga blamed it on government-backed gunmen. On Tuesday, more than a dozen gunmen destroyed the main studios of Sri Lanka's largest independent and private broadcaster, which had often clashed with authorities over its coverage of the war and suicide bombings. Journalists face murder, harassment, abduction and arbitrary detention in Sri Lanka, which press freedom groups count among the world's most dangerous countries for reporters. ARMY OVERRUNS TIGERS In Washington, State Department spokesman Robert Wood said the United States "strongly condemns" Wickramatunga's killing, as well as the attack on the broadcaster. "These deplorable acts mark the latest in a series of attempts to quell independent voices in Sri Lanka," Wood added. calling on the government to investigate the attacks, bring the perpetrators to justice and protect freedom of the press. RSF said military victories should "not be seen as a green light for death squads to sow terror against government critics." Troops are sandwiching the Tiger rebels from the north and south on the 6-km (4-mile) wide neck of the northern Jaffna Peninsula, and the military say most rebels are fleeing the area. "Troops captured Pallai today, going forward from yesterday's positions, and are getting closer to Elephant Pass," military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said. "There are small pockets of fighting and the terrorists are withdrawing." Pallai is a village on the northern front being attacked by two divisions, about 8 km (5 miles) north of Elephant Pass. Elephant Pass is a strategic former army base at the entry to Jaffna that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or LTTE, captured in 2000 in a stinging defeat for the army. Later, soldiers just south of there captured Murusumadai junction, on another road toward the Tigers' dwindling strongholds on the east coast around the port of Mullaittivu. War planes on Thursday blew up two large boats in Chundikulam and two artillery guns there being withdrawn down the coast to Mullaittivu, and again attacked inbound reinforcements, air force spokesman Wing Commander Janaka Nanayakkara said. The military has been making more progress than at any time in the 25-year war, one of Asia's longest-running insurgencies. Last week, troops captured the Tigers' self-proclaimed capital of Kilinochchi in a major blow for the LTTE's separatist ambitions. The LTTE had proclaimed Kilinochchi capital of the separate state it wants to create for Tamils. Many Tamils have complained of unfair treatment by successive governments led by the Sinhalese majority since independence from Britain in 1948.
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