Lasantha Wickramatunga
ASSIST News Service (ANS) -
PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609-0609 USA
Visit our web site at: www.assistnews.net -- E-mail: assistnews@aol.com
COLOMBO, SRI LANKA (ANS) -- Following the brutal murder of the Christian editor of a major Sri Lankan newspaper, church leaders along with human rights organizations have voiced their concerns over escalating ethnic violence in the island nation.
|
|
|
Lasantha Wickramatunga |
According to a story written by Dibin Samuel and posted on www.christiantoday.com, the Editor in Chief of the Sunday Leader, Lasantha Wickramatunga, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen on Thursday, January 8, 2009 for “exposing political corruption and human rights abuses related to the government and the opposition Tamil Tigers.”
In a statement, National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka lamented, “The cold blooded murder of Lasantha Wickramatunga has struck the death knell to media freedom in our country.”
It added, “If this violent trend is not arrested and the rule of law is not respected, Sri Lanka will be drawn in to an abyss of death, destruction and anarchy.”
Anglican Bishop Duleep de Chickera of Colombo said in a statement, “The assassination of Lasantha Wikramatunga, in broad daylight on a public road, has sent shock waves of anger, fear and desperation through the country. This deliberate and senseless act ... is part of a wider and worsening strategy to suppress and silence the media.”
Samuel said, “The incident led to an uproar in the country and Christians joined hands with over 10,000 protestors condemning the murder, including journalists, media groups, lawyers, and human rights organizations.”
The president of the bishops' conference in a statement said, “This trend of attacks on the media and wanton killings do not augur well for the country in any way, and it is our earnest hope that this sub-culture of violence and intimidation be arrested at the earliest.”
Samuel went on to say that Lasantha had said previously to his brother that he believed the government would try to kill him.
In paper by Lasantha, titled “And then they came for me” and published three days after the murder, the 50-year-old journalist had predicted his own death. “When finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me,” it read.
“No other profession calls on its practitioners to lay down their lives for their art save the armed forces and, in Sri Lanka, journalism. In the course of the past few years, the independent media have increasingly come under attack. Electronic and print-media institutions have been burnt, bombed, sealed and coerced. Countless journalists have been harassed, threatened and killed. It has been my honor to belong to all those categories and now especially the last,” he wrote.
Samuel went on to say, “At least 14 journalists and media workers have been killed in Sri Lanka since 2006, according to Amnesty International. Another 20 have fled overseas after death threats.
“Sri Lanka has been affected by civil war for several decades, predominantly between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a separatist armed organization that fights for the creation of an independent state named Tamil Eelam.
“Over 70,000 people have been officially listed as killed in the war since 1983.”
| Dan Wooding, 68, is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma of 45 years. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS); and US Bureau Chief for the Missionaries News Service (www.missionariesnews.tv) and Safe Worlds IPTV’s Faith, Hope and Charity channel. He was, for ten years, a commentator, on the UPI Radio Network in Washington, DC., and now hosts the weekly "Front Page Radio" show on KWVE in Southern California and which is also carried on the Calvary Radio Network throughout the United States. The program is also aired in Great Britain on UCB UK and Calvary Chapel Radio UK. Wooding is the author of some 42 books, the latest of which is his autobiography, "From Tabloid to Truth", which is published by Theatron Books. To order a copy, go to www.fromtabloidtotruth.com. E-mail: danjuma1@aol.com. |
|
ASSIST News Service (ANS) -
PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609-0609 USA
Visit our web site at: www.assistnews.net -- E-mail: assistnews@aol.com
COLOMBO, SRI LANKA (ANS) -- Following the brutal murder of the Christian editor of a major Sri Lankan newspaper, church leaders along with human rights organizations have voiced their concerns over escalating ethnic violence in the island nation.
|
|
|
Lasantha Wickramatunga |
According to a story written by Dibin Samuel and posted on www.christiantoday.com, the Editor in Chief of the Sunday Leader, Lasantha Wickramatunga, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen on Thursday, January 8, 2009 for “exposing political corruption and human rights abuses related to the government and the opposition Tamil Tigers.”
In a statement, National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka lamented, “The cold blooded murder of Lasantha Wickramatunga has struck the death knell to media freedom in our country.”
It added, “If this violent trend is not arrested and the rule of law is not respected, Sri Lanka will be drawn in to an abyss of death, destruction and anarchy.”
Anglican Bishop Duleep de Chickera of Colombo said in a statement, “The assassination of Lasantha Wikramatunga, in broad daylight on a public road, has sent shock waves of anger, fear and desperation through the country. This deliberate and senseless act ... is part of a wider and worsening strategy to suppress and silence the media.”
Samuel said, “The incident led to an uproar in the country and Christians joined hands with over 10,000 protestors condemning the murder, including journalists, media groups, lawyers, and human rights organizations.”
The president of the bishops' conference in a statement said, “This trend of attacks on the media and wanton killings do not augur well for the country in any way, and it is our earnest hope that this sub-culture of violence and intimidation be arrested at the earliest.”
Samuel went on to say that Lasantha had said previously to his brother that he believed the government would try to kill him.
In paper by Lasantha, titled “And then they came for me” and published three days after the murder, the 50-year-old journalist had predicted his own death. “When finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me,” it read.
“No other profession calls on its practitioners to lay down their lives for their art save the armed forces and, in Sri Lanka, journalism. In the course of the past few years, the independent media have increasingly come under attack. Electronic and print-media institutions have been burnt, bombed, sealed and coerced. Countless journalists have been harassed, threatened and killed. It has been my honor to belong to all those categories and now especially the last,” he wrote.
Samuel went on to say, “At least 14 journalists and media workers have been killed in Sri Lanka since 2006, according to Amnesty International. Another 20 have fled overseas after death threats.
“Sri Lanka has been affected by civil war for several decades, predominantly between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a separatist armed organization that fights for the creation of an independent state named Tamil Eelam.
“Over 70,000 people have been officially listed as killed in the war since 1983.”
| Dan Wooding, 68, is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma of 45 years. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS); and US Bureau Chief for the Missionaries News Service (www.missionariesnews.tv) and Safe Worlds IPTV’s Faith, Hope and Charity channel. He was, for ten years, a commentator, on the UPI Radio Network in Washington, DC., and now hosts the weekly "Front Page Radio" show on KWVE in Southern California and which is also carried on the Calvary Radio Network throughout the United States. The program is also aired in Great Britain on UCB UK and Calvary Chapel Radio UK. Wooding is the author of some 42 books, the latest of which is his autobiography, "From Tabloid to Truth", which is published by Theatron Books. To order a copy, go to www.fromtabloidtotruth.com. E-mail: danjuma1@aol.com. |
|
ASSIST News Service (ANS) -
PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609-0609 USA
Visit our web site at: www.assistnews.net -- E-mail: assistnews@aol.com
COLOMBO, SRI LANKA (ANS) -- Following the brutal murder of the Christian editor of a major Sri Lankan newspaper, church leaders along with human rights organizations have voiced their concerns over escalating ethnic violence in the island nation.
|
|
|
Lasantha Wickramatunga |
According to a story written by Dibin Samuel and posted on www.christiantoday.com, the Editor in Chief of the Sunday Leader, Lasantha Wickramatunga, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen on Thursday, January 8, 2009 for “exposing political corruption and human rights abuses related to the government and the opposition Tamil Tigers.”
In a statement, National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka lamented, “The cold blooded murder of Lasantha Wickramatunga has struck the death knell to media freedom in our country.”
It added, “If this violent trend is not arrested and the rule of law is not respected, Sri Lanka will be drawn in to an abyss of death, destruction and anarchy.”
Anglican Bishop Duleep de Chickera of Colombo said in a statement, “The assassination of Lasantha Wikramatunga, in broad daylight on a public road, has sent shock waves of anger, fear and desperation through the country. This deliberate and senseless act ... is part of a wider and worsening strategy to suppress and silence the media.”
Samuel said, “The incident led to an uproar in the country and Christians joined hands with over 10,000 protestors condemning the murder, including journalists, media groups, lawyers, and human rights organizations.”
The president of the bishops' conference in a statement said, “This trend of attacks on the media and wanton killings do not augur well for the country in any way, and it is our earnest hope that this sub-culture of violence and intimidation be arrested at the earliest.”
Samuel went on to say that Lasantha had said previously to his brother that he believed the government would try to kill him.
In paper by Lasantha, titled “And then they came for me” and published three days after the murder, the 50-year-old journalist had predicted his own death. “When finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me,” it read.
“No other profession calls on its practitioners to lay down their lives for their art save the armed forces and, in Sri Lanka, journalism. In the course of the past few years, the independent media have increasingly come under attack. Electronic and print-media institutions have been burnt, bombed, sealed and coerced. Countless journalists have been harassed, threatened and killed. It has been my honor to belong to all those categories and now especially the last,” he wrote.
Samuel went on to say, “At least 14 journalists and media workers have been killed in Sri Lanka since 2006, according to Amnesty International. Another 20 have fled overseas after death threats.
“Sri Lanka has been affected by civil war for several decades, predominantly between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a separatist armed organization that fights for the creation of an independent state named Tamil Eelam.
“Over 70,000 people have been officially listed as killed in the war since 1983.”
| Dan Wooding, 68, is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma of 45 years. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS); and US Bureau Chief for the Missionaries News Service (www.missionariesnews.tv) and Safe Worlds IPTV’s Faith, Hope and Charity channel. He was, for ten years, a commentator, on the UPI Radio Network in Washington, DC., and now hosts the weekly "Front Page Radio" show on KWVE in Southern California and which is also carried on the Calvary Radio Network throughout the United States. The program is also aired in Great Britain on UCB UK and Calvary Chapel Radio UK. Wooding is the author of some 42 books, the latest of which is his autobiography, "From Tabloid to Truth", which is published by Theatron Books. To order a copy, go to www.fromtabloidtotruth.com. E-mail: danjuma1@aol.com. |
|
ASSIST News Service (ANS) -
PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609-0609 USA
Visit our web site at: www.assistnews.net -- E-mail: assistnews@aol.com
COLOMBO, SRI LANKA (ANS) -- Following the brutal murder of the Christian editor of a major Sri Lankan newspaper, church leaders along with human rights organizations have voiced their concerns over escalating ethnic violence in the island nation.
|
|
|
Lasantha Wickramatunga |
According to a story written by Dibin Samuel and posted on www.christiantoday.com, the Editor in Chief of the Sunday Leader, Lasantha Wickramatunga, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen on Thursday, January 8, 2009 for “exposing political corruption and human rights abuses related to the government and the opposition Tamil Tigers.”
In a statement, National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka lamented, “The cold blooded murder of Lasantha Wickramatunga has struck the death knell to media freedom in our country.”
It added, “If this violent trend is not arrested and the rule of law is not respected, Sri Lanka will be drawn in to an abyss of death, destruction and anarchy.”
Anglican Bishop Duleep de Chickera of Colombo said in a statement, “The assassination of Lasantha Wikramatunga, in broad daylight on a public road, has sent shock waves of anger, fear and desperation through the country. This deliberate and senseless act ... is part of a wider and worsening strategy to suppress and silence the media.”
Samuel said, “The incident led to an uproar in the country and Christians joined hands with over 10,000 protestors condemning the murder, including journalists, media groups, lawyers, and human rights organizations.”
The president of the bishops' conference in a statement said, “This trend of attacks on the media and wanton killings do not augur well for the country in any way, and it is our earnest hope that this sub-culture of violence and intimidation be arrested at the earliest.”
Samuel went on to say that Lasantha had said previously to his brother that he believed the government would try to kill him.
In paper by Lasantha, titled “And then they came for me” and published three days after the murder, the 50-year-old journalist had predicted his own death. “When finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me,” it read.
“No other profession calls on its practitioners to lay down their lives for their art save the armed forces and, in Sri Lanka, journalism. In the course of the past few years, the independent media have increasingly come under attack. Electronic and print-media institutions have been burnt, bombed, sealed and coerced. Countless journalists have been harassed, threatened and killed. It has been my honor to belong to all those categories and now especially the last,” he wrote.
Samuel went on to say, “At least 14 journalists and media workers have been killed in Sri Lanka since 2006, according to Amnesty International. Another 20 have fled overseas after death threats.
“Sri Lanka has been affected by civil war for several decades, predominantly between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a separatist armed organization that fights for the creation of an independent state named Tamil Eelam.
“Over 70,000 people have been officially listed as killed in the war since 1983.”
| Dan Wooding, 68, is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma of 45 years. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS); and US Bureau Chief for the Missionaries News Service (www.missionariesnews.tv) and Safe Worlds IPTV’s Faith, Hope and Charity channel. He was, for ten years, a commentator, on the UPI Radio Network in Washington, DC., and now hosts the weekly "Front Page Radio" show on KWVE in Southern California and which is also carried on the Calvary Radio Network throughout the United States. The program is also aired in Great Britain on UCB UK and Calvary Chapel Radio UK. Wooding is the author of some 42 books, the latest of which is his autobiography, "From Tabloid to Truth", which is published by Theatron Books. To order a copy, go to www.fromtabloidtotruth.com. E-mail: danjuma1@aol.com. |
|
ASSIST News Service (ANS) -
PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609-0609 USA
Visit our web site at: www.assistnews.net -- E-mail: assistnews@aol.com
COLOMBO, SRI LANKA (ANS) -- Following the brutal murder of the Christian editor of a major Sri Lankan newspaper, church leaders along with human rights organizations have voiced their concerns over escalating ethnic violence in the island nation.
|
|
|
Lasantha Wickramatunga |
According to a story written by Dibin Samuel and posted on www.christiantoday.com, the Editor in Chief of the Sunday Leader, Lasantha Wickramatunga, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen on Thursday, January 8, 2009 for “exposing political corruption and human rights abuses related to the government and the opposition Tamil Tigers.”
In a statement, National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka lamented, “The cold blooded murder of Lasantha Wickramatunga has struck the death knell to media freedom in our country.”
It added, “If this violent trend is not arrested and the rule of law is not respected, Sri Lanka will be drawn in to an abyss of death, destruction and anarchy.”
Anglican Bishop Duleep de Chickera of Colombo said in a statement, “The assassination of Lasantha Wikramatunga, in broad daylight on a public road, has sent shock waves of anger, fear and desperation through the country. This deliberate and senseless act ... is part of a wider and worsening strategy to suppress and silence the media.”
Samuel said, “The incident led to an uproar in the country and Christians joined hands with over 10,000 protestors condemning the murder, including journalists, media groups, lawyers, and human rights organizations.”
The president of the bishops' conference in a statement said, “This trend of attacks on the media and wanton killings do not augur well for the country in any way, and it is our earnest hope that this sub-culture of violence and intimidation be arrested at the earliest.”
Samuel went on to say that Lasantha had said previously to his brother that he believed the government would try to kill him.
In paper by Lasantha, titled “And then they came for me” and published three days after the murder, the 50-year-old journalist had predicted his own death. “When finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me,” it read.
“No other profession calls on its practitioners to lay down their lives for their art save the armed forces and, in Sri Lanka, journalism. In the course of the past few years, the independent media have increasingly come under attack. Electronic and print-media institutions have been burnt, bombed, sealed and coerced. Countless journalists have been harassed, threatened and killed. It has been my honor to belong to all those categories and now especially the last,” he wrote.
Samuel went on to say, “At least 14 journalists and media workers have been killed in Sri Lanka since 2006, according to Amnesty International. Another 20 have fled overseas after death threats.
“Sri Lanka has been affected by civil war for several decades, predominantly between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a separatist armed organization that fights for the creation of an independent state named Tamil Eelam.
“Over 70,000 people have been officially listed as killed in the war since 1983.”
| Dan Wooding, 68, is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma of 45 years. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS); and US Bureau Chief for the Missionaries News Service (www.missionariesnews.tv) and Safe Worlds IPTV’s Faith, Hope and Charity channel. He was, for ten years, a commentator, on the UPI Radio Network in Washington, DC., and now hosts the weekly "Front Page Radio" show on KWVE in Southern California and which is also carried on the Calvary Radio Network throughout the United States. The program is also aired in Great Britain on UCB UK and Calvary Chapel Radio UK. Wooding is the author of some 42 books, the latest of which is his autobiography, "From Tabloid to Truth", which is published by Theatron Books. To order a copy, go to www.fromtabloidtotruth.com. E-mail: danjuma1@aol.com. |
|
ASSIST News Service (ANS) -
PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609-0609 USA
Visit our web site at: www.assistnews.net -- E-mail: assistnews@aol.com
COLOMBO, SRI LANKA (ANS) -- Following the brutal murder of the Christian editor of a major Sri Lankan newspaper, church leaders along with human rights organizations have voiced their concerns over escalating ethnic violence in the island nation.
|
|
|
Lasantha Wickramatunga |
According to a story written by Dibin Samuel and posted on www.christiantoday.com, the Editor in Chief of the Sunday Leader, Lasantha Wickramatunga, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen on Thursday, January 8, 2009 for “exposing political corruption and human rights abuses related to the government and the opposition Tamil Tigers.”
In a statement, National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka lamented, “The cold blooded murder of Lasantha Wickramatunga has struck the death knell to media freedom in our country.”
It added, “If this violent trend is not arrested and the rule of law is not respected, Sri Lanka will be drawn in to an abyss of death, destruction and anarchy.”
Anglican Bishop Duleep de Chickera of Colombo said in a statement, “The assassination of Lasantha Wikramatunga, in broad daylight on a public road, has sent shock waves of anger, fear and desperation through the country. This deliberate and senseless act ... is part of a wider and worsening strategy to suppress and silence the media.”
Samuel said, “The incident led to an uproar in the country and Christians joined hands with over 10,000 protestors condemning the murder, including journalists, media groups, lawyers, and human rights organizations.”
The president of the bishops' conference in a statement said, “This trend of attacks on the media and wanton killings do not augur well for the country in any way, and it is our earnest hope that this sub-culture of violence and intimidation be arrested at the earliest.”
Samuel went on to say that Lasantha had said previously to his brother that he believed the government would try to kill him.
In paper by Lasantha, titled “And then they came for me” and published three days after the murder, the 50-year-old journalist had predicted his own death. “When finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me,” it read.
“No other profession calls on its practitioners to lay down their lives for their art save the armed forces and, in Sri Lanka, journalism. In the course of the past few years, the independent media have increasingly come under attack. Electronic and print-media institutions have been burnt, bombed, sealed and coerced. Countless journalists have been harassed, threatened and killed. It has been my honor to belong to all those categories and now especially the last,” he wrote.
Samuel went on to say, “At least 14 journalists and media workers have been killed in Sri Lanka since 2006, according to Amnesty International. Another 20 have fled overseas after death threats.
“Sri Lanka has been affected by civil war for several decades, predominantly between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a separatist armed organization that fights for the creation of an independent state named Tamil Eelam.
“Over 70,000 people have been officially listed as killed in the war since 1983.”
| Dan Wooding, 68, is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma of 45 years. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS); and US Bureau Chief for the Missionaries News Service (www.missionariesnews.tv) and Safe Worlds IPTV’s Faith, Hope and Charity channel. He was, for ten years, a commentator, on the UPI Radio Network in Washington, DC., and now hosts the weekly "Front Page Radio" show on KWVE in Southern California and which is also carried on the Calvary Radio Network throughout the United States. The program is also aired in Great Britain on UCB UK and Calvary Chapel Radio UK. Wooding is the author of some 42 books, the latest of which is his autobiography, "From Tabloid to Truth", which is published by Theatron Books. To order a copy, go to www.fromtabloidtotruth.com. E-mail: danjuma1@aol.com. |
|
ASSIST News Service (ANS) -
PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609-0609 USA
Visit our web site at: www.assistnews.net -- E-mail: assistnews@aol.com
COLOMBO, SRI LANKA (ANS) -- Following the brutal murder of the Christian editor of a major Sri Lankan newspaper, church leaders along with human rights organizations have voiced their concerns over escalating ethnic violence in the island nation.
|
|
|
Lasantha Wickramatunga |
According to a story written by Dibin Samuel and posted on www.christiantoday.com, the Editor in Chief of the Sunday Leader, Lasantha Wickramatunga, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen on Thursday, January 8, 2009 for “exposing political corruption and human rights abuses related to the government and the opposition Tamil Tigers.”
In a statement, National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka lamented, “The cold blooded murder of Lasantha Wickramatunga has struck the death knell to media freedom in our country.”
It added, “If this violent trend is not arrested and the rule of law is not respected, Sri Lanka will be drawn in to an abyss of death, destruction and anarchy.”
Anglican Bishop Duleep de Chickera of Colombo said in a statement, “The assassination of Lasantha Wikramatunga, in broad daylight on a public road, has sent shock waves of anger, fear and desperation through the country. This deliberate and senseless act ... is part of a wider and worsening strategy to suppress and silence the media.”
Samuel said, “The incident led to an uproar in the country and Christians joined hands with over 10,000 protestors condemning the murder, including journalists, media groups, lawyers, and human rights organizations.”
The president of the bishops' conference in a statement said, “This trend of attacks on the media and wanton killings do not augur well for the country in any way, and it is our earnest hope that this sub-culture of violence and intimidation be arrested at the earliest.”
Samuel went on to say that Lasantha had said previously to his brother that he believed the government would try to kill him.
In paper by Lasantha, titled “And then they came for me” and published three days after the murder, the 50-year-old journalist had predicted his own death. “When finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me,” it read.
“No other profession calls on its practitioners to lay down their lives for their art save the armed forces and, in Sri Lanka, journalism. In the course of the past few years, the independent media have increasingly come under attack. Electronic and print-media institutions have been burnt, bombed, sealed and coerced. Countless journalists have been harassed, threatened and killed. It has been my honor to belong to all those categories and now especially the last,” he wrote.
Samuel went on to say, “At least 14 journalists and media workers have been killed in Sri Lanka since 2006, according to Amnesty International. Another 20 have fled overseas after death threats.
“Sri Lanka has been affected by civil war for several decades, predominantly between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a separatist armed organization that fights for the creation of an independent state named Tamil Eelam.
“Over 70,000 people have been officially listed as killed in the war since 1983.”
| Dan Wooding, 68, is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma of 45 years. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS); and US Bureau Chief for the Missionaries News Service (www.missionariesnews.tv) and Safe Worlds IPTV’s Faith, Hope and Charity channel. He was, for ten years, a commentator, on the UPI Radio Network in Washington, DC., and now hosts the weekly "Front Page Radio" show on KWVE in Southern California and which is also carried on the Calvary Radio Network throughout the United States. The program is also aired in Great Britain on UCB UK and Calvary Chapel Radio UK. Wooding is the author of some 42 books, the latest of which is his autobiography, "From Tabloid to Truth", which is published by Theatron Books. To order a copy, go to www.fromtabloidtotruth.com. E-mail: danjuma1@aol.com. |
|
ASSIST News Service (ANS) -
PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609-0609 USA
Visit our web site at: www.assistnews.net -- E-mail: assistnews@aol.com
COLOMBO, SRI LANKA (ANS) -- Following the brutal murder of the Christian editor of a major Sri Lankan newspaper, church leaders along with human rights organizations have voiced their concerns over escalating ethnic violence in the island nation.
|
|
|
Lasantha Wickramatunga |
According to a story written by Dibin Samuel and posted on www.christiantoday.com, the Editor in Chief of the Sunday Leader, Lasantha Wickramatunga, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen on Thursday, January 8, 2009 for “exposing political corruption and human rights abuses related to the government and the opposition Tamil Tigers.”
In a statement, National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka lamented, “The cold blooded murder of Lasantha Wickramatunga has struck the death knell to media freedom in our country.”
It added, “If this violent trend is not arrested and the rule of law is not respected, Sri Lanka will be drawn in to an abyss of death, destruction and anarchy.”
Anglican Bishop Duleep de Chickera of Colombo said in a statement, “The assassination of Lasantha Wikramatunga, in broad daylight on a public road, has sent shock waves of anger, fear and desperation through the country. This deliberate and senseless act ... is part of a wider and worsening strategy to suppress and silence the media.”
Samuel said, “The incident led to an uproar in the country and Christians joined hands with over 10,000 protestors condemning the murder, including journalists, media groups, lawyers, and human rights organizations.”
The president of the bishops' conference in a statement said, “This trend of attacks on the media and wanton killings do not augur well for the country in any way, and it is our earnest hope that this sub-culture of violence and intimidation be arrested at the earliest.”
Samuel went on to say that Lasantha had said previously to his brother that he believed the government would try to kill him.
In paper by Lasantha, titled “And then they came for me” and published three days after the murder, the 50-year-old journalist had predicted his own death. “When finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me,” it read.
“No other profession calls on its practitioners to lay down their lives for their art save the armed forces and, in Sri Lanka, journalism. In the course of the past few years, the independent media have increasingly come under attack. Electronic and print-media institutions have been burnt, bombed, sealed and coerced. Countless journalists have been harassed, threatened and killed. It has been my honor to belong to all those categories and now especially the last,” he wrote.
Samuel went on to say, “At least 14 journalists and media workers have been killed in Sri Lanka since 2006, according to Amnesty International. Another 20 have fled overseas after death threats.
“Sri Lanka has been affected by civil war for several decades, predominantly between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a separatist armed organization that fights for the creation of an independent state named Tamil Eelam.
“Over 70,000 people have been officially listed as killed in the war since 1983.”
| Dan Wooding, 68, is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma of 45 years. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS); and US Bureau Chief for the Missionaries News Service (www.missionariesnews.tv) and Safe Worlds IPTV’s Faith, Hope and Charity channel. He was, for ten years, a commentator, on the UPI Radio Network in Washington, DC., and now hosts the weekly "Front Page Radio" show on KWVE in Southern California and which is also carried on the Calvary Radio Network throughout the United States. The program is also aired in Great Britain on UCB UK and Calvary Chapel Radio UK. Wooding is the author of some 42 books, the latest of which is his autobiography, "From Tabloid to Truth", which is published by Theatron Books. To order a copy, go to www.fromtabloidtotruth.com. E-mail: danjuma1@aol.com. |
|
ASSIST News Service (ANS) -
PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609-0609 USA
Visit our web site at: www.assistnews.net -- E-mail: assistnews@aol.com
COLOMBO, SRI LANKA (ANS) -- Following the brutal murder of the Christian editor of a major Sri Lankan newspaper, church leaders along with human rights organizations have voiced their concerns over escalating ethnic violence in the island nation.
|
|
|
Lasantha Wickramatunga |
According to a story written by Dibin Samuel and posted on www.christiantoday.com, the Editor in Chief of the Sunday Leader, Lasantha Wickramatunga, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen on Thursday, January 8, 2009 for “exposing political corruption and human rights abuses related to the government and the opposition Tamil Tigers.”
In a statement, National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka lamented, “The cold blooded murder of Lasantha Wickramatunga has struck the death knell to media freedom in our country.”
It added, “If this violent trend is not arrested and the rule of law is not respected, Sri Lanka will be drawn in to an abyss of death, destruction and anarchy.”
Anglican Bishop Duleep de Chickera of Colombo said in a statement, “The assassination of Lasantha Wikramatunga, in broad daylight on a public road, has sent shock waves of anger, fear and desperation through the country. This deliberate and senseless act ... is part of a wider and worsening strategy to suppress and silence the media.”
Samuel said, “The incident led to an uproar in the country and Christians joined hands with over 10,000 protestors condemning the murder, including journalists, media groups, lawyers, and human rights organizations.”
The president of the bishops' conference in a statement said, “This trend of attacks on the media and wanton killings do not augur well for the country in any way, and it is our earnest hope that this sub-culture of violence and intimidation be arrested at the earliest.”
Samuel went on to say that Lasantha had said previously to his brother that he believed the government would try to kill him.
In paper by Lasantha, titled “And then they came for me” and published three days after the murder, the 50-year-old journalist had predicted his own death. “When finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me,” it read.
“No other profession calls on its practitioners to lay down their lives for their art save the armed forces and, in Sri Lanka, journalism. In the course of the past few years, the independent media have increasingly come under attack. Electronic and print-media institutions have been burnt, bombed, sealed and coerced. Countless journalists have been harassed, threatened and killed. It has been my honor to belong to all those categories and now especially the last,” he wrote.
Samuel went on to say, “At least 14 journalists and media workers have been killed in Sri Lanka since 2006, according to Amnesty International. Another 20 have fled overseas after death threats.
“Sri Lanka has been affected by civil war for several decades, predominantly between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a separatist armed organization that fights for the creation of an independent state named Tamil Eelam.
“Over 70,000 people have been officially listed as killed in the war since 1983.”
| Dan Wooding, 68, is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma of 45 years. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS); and US Bureau Chief for the Missionaries News Service (www.missionariesnews.tv) and Safe Worlds IPTV’s Faith, Hope and Charity channel. He was, for ten years, a commentator, on the UPI Radio Network in Washington, DC., and now hosts the weekly "Front Page Radio" show on KWVE in Southern California and which is also carried on the Calvary Radio Network throughout the United States. The program is also aired in Great Britain on UCB UK and Calvary Chapel Radio UK. Wooding is the author of some 42 books, the latest of which is his autobiography, "From Tabloid to Truth", which is published by Theatron Books. To order a copy, go to www.fromtabloidtotruth.com. E-mail: danjuma1@aol.com. |
|
ASSIST News Service (ANS) -
PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609-0609 USA
Visit our web site at: www.assistnews.net -- E-mail: assistnews@aol.com
COLOMBO, SRI LANKA (ANS) -- Following the brutal murder of the Christian editor of a major Sri Lankan newspaper, church leaders along with human rights organizations have voiced their concerns over escalating ethnic violence in the island nation.
|
|
|
Lasantha Wickramatunga |
According to a story written by Dibin Samuel and posted on www.christiantoday.com, the Editor in Chief of the Sunday Leader, Lasantha Wickramatunga, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen on Thursday, January 8, 2009 for “exposing political corruption and human rights abuses related to the government and the opposition Tamil Tigers.”
In a statement, National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka lamented, “The cold blooded murder of Lasantha Wickramatunga has struck the death knell to media freedom in our country.”
It added, “If this violent trend is not arrested and the rule of law is not respected, Sri Lanka will be drawn in to an abyss of death, destruction and anarchy.”
Anglican Bishop Duleep de Chickera of Colombo said in a statement, “The assassination of Lasantha Wikramatunga, in broad daylight on a public road, has sent shock waves of anger, fear and desperation through the country. This deliberate and senseless act ... is part of a wider and worsening strategy to suppress and silence the media.”
Samuel said, “The incident led to an uproar in the country and Christians joined hands with over 10,000 protestors condemning the murder, including journalists, media groups, lawyers, and human rights organizations.”
The president of the bishops' conference in a statement said, “This trend of attacks on the media and wanton killings do not augur well for the country in any way, and it is our earnest hope that this sub-culture of violence and intimidation be arrested at the earliest.”
Samuel went on to say that Lasantha had said previously to his brother that he believed the government would try to kill him.
In paper by Lasantha, titled “And then they came for me” and published three days after the murder, the 50-year-old journalist had predicted his own death. “When finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me,” it read.
“No other profession calls on its practitioners to lay down their lives for their art save the armed forces and, in Sri Lanka, journalism. In the course of the past few years, the independent media have increasingly come under attack. Electronic and print-media institutions have been burnt, bombed, sealed and coerced. Countless journalists have been harassed, threatened and killed. It has been my honor to belong to all those categories and now especially the last,” he wrote.
Samuel went on to say, “At least 14 journalists and media workers have been killed in Sri Lanka since 2006, according to Amnesty International. Another 20 have fled overseas after death threats.
“Sri Lanka has been affected by civil war for several decades, predominantly between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a separatist armed organization that fights for the creation of an independent state named Tamil Eelam.
“Over 70,000 people have been officially listed as killed in the war since 1983.”
| Dan Wooding, 68, is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma of 45 years. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS); and US Bureau Chief for the Missionaries News Service (www.missionariesnews.tv) and Safe Worlds IPTV’s Faith, Hope and Charity channel. He was, for ten years, a commentator, on the UPI Radio Network in Washington, DC., and now hosts the weekly "Front Page Radio" show on KWVE in Southern California and which is also carried on the Calvary Radio Network throughout the United States. The program is also aired in Great Britain on UCB UK and Calvary Chapel Radio UK. Wooding is the author of some 42 books, the latest of which is his autobiography, "From Tabloid to Truth", which is published by Theatron Books. To order a copy, go to www.fromtabloidtotruth.com. E-mail: danjuma1@aol.com. |
|
ASSIST News Service (ANS) -
PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609-0609 USA
Visit our web site at: www.assistnews.net -- E-mail: assistnews@aol.com
COLOMBO, SRI LANKA (ANS) -- Following the brutal murder of the Christian editor of a major Sri Lankan newspaper, church leaders along with human rights organizations have voiced their concerns over escalating ethnic violence in the island nation.
|
|
|
Lasantha Wickramatunga |
According to a story written by Dibin Samuel and posted on www.christiantoday.com, the Editor in Chief of the Sunday Leader, Lasantha Wickramatunga, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen on Thursday, January 8, 2009 for “exposing political corruption and human rights abuses related to the government and the opposition Tamil Tigers.”
In a statement, National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka lamented, “The cold blooded murder of Lasantha Wickramatunga has struck the death knell to media freedom in our country.”
It added, “If this violent trend is not arrested and the rule of law is not respected, Sri Lanka will be drawn in to an abyss of death, destruction and anarchy.”
Anglican Bishop Duleep de Chickera of Colombo said in a statement, “The assassination of Lasantha Wikramatunga, in broad daylight on a public road, has sent shock waves of anger, fear and desperation through the country. This deliberate and senseless act ... is part of a wider and worsening strategy to suppress and silence the media.”
Samuel said, “The incident led to an uproar in the country and Christians joined hands with over 10,000 protestors condemning the murder, including journalists, media groups, lawyers, and human rights organizations.”
The president of the bishops' conference in a statement said, “This trend of attacks on the media and wanton killings do not augur well for the country in any way, and it is our earnest hope that this sub-culture of violence and intimidation be arrested at the earliest.”
Samuel went on to say that Lasantha had said previously to his brother that he believed the government would try to kill him.
In paper by Lasantha, titled “And then they came for me” and published three days after the murder, the 50-year-old journalist had predicted his own death. “When finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me,” it read.
“No other profession calls on its practitioners to lay down their lives for their art save the armed forces and, in Sri Lanka, journalism. In the course of the past few years, the independent media have increasingly come under attack. Electronic and print-media institutions have been burnt, bombed, sealed and coerced. Countless journalists have been harassed, threatened and killed. It has been my honor to belong to all those categories and now especially the last,” he wrote.
Samuel went on to say, “At least 14 journalists and media workers have been killed in Sri Lanka since 2006, according to Amnesty International. Another 20 have fled overseas after death threats.
“Sri Lanka has been affected by civil war for several decades, predominantly between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a separatist armed organization that fights for the creation of an independent state named Tamil Eelam.
“Over 70,000 people have been officially listed as killed in the war since 1983.”
| Dan Wooding, 68, is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma of 45 years. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS); and US Bureau Chief for the Missionaries News Service (www.missionariesnews.tv) and Safe Worlds IPTV’s Faith, Hope and Charity channel. He was, for ten years, a commentator, on the UPI Radio Network in Washington, DC., and now hosts the weekly "Front Page Radio" show on KWVE in Southern California and which is also carried on the Calvary Radio Network throughout the United States. The program is also aired in Great Britain on UCB UK and Calvary Chapel Radio UK. Wooding is the author of some 42 books, the latest of which is his autobiography, "From Tabloid to Truth", which is published by Theatron Books. To order a copy, go to www.fromtabloidtotruth.com. E-mail: danjuma1@aol.com. |
|
ASSIST News Service (ANS) -
PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609-0609 USA
Visit our web site at: www.assistnews.net -- E-mail: assistnews@aol.com
COLOMBO, SRI LANKA (ANS) -- Following the brutal murder of the Christian editor of a major Sri Lankan newspaper, church leaders along with human rights organizations have voiced their concerns over escalating ethnic violence in the island nation.
|
|
|
Lasantha Wickramatunga |
According to a story written by Dibin Samuel and posted on www.christiantoday.com, the Editor in Chief of the Sunday Leader, Lasantha Wickramatunga, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen on Thursday, January 8, 2009 for “exposing political corruption and human rights abuses related to the government and the opposition Tamil Tigers.”
In a statement, National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka lamented, “The cold blooded murder of Lasantha Wickramatunga has struck the death knell to media freedom in our country.”
It added, “If this violent trend is not arrested and the rule of law is not respected, Sri Lanka will be drawn in to an abyss of death, destruction and anarchy.”
Anglican Bishop Duleep de Chickera of Colombo said in a statement, “The assassination of Lasantha Wikramatunga, in broad daylight on a public road, has sent shock waves of anger, fear and desperation through the country. This deliberate and senseless act ... is part of a wider and worsening strategy to suppress and silence the media.”
Samuel said, “The incident led to an uproar in the country and Christians joined hands with over 10,000 protestors condemning the murder, including journalists, media groups, lawyers, and human rights organizations.”
The president of the bishops' conference in a statement said, “This trend of attacks on the media and wanton killings do not augur well for the country in any way, and it is our earnest hope that this sub-culture of violence and intimidation be arrested at the earliest.”
Samuel went on to say that Lasantha had said previously to his brother that he believed the government would try to kill him.
In paper by Lasantha, titled “And then they came for me” and published three days after the murder, the 50-year-old journalist had predicted his own death. “When finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me,” it read.
“No other profession calls on its practitioners to lay down their lives for their art save the armed forces and, in Sri Lanka, journalism. In the course of the past few years, the independent media have increasingly come under attack. Electronic and print-media institutions have been burnt, bombed, sealed and coerced. Countless journalists have been harassed, threatened and killed. It has been my honor to belong to all those categories and now especially the last,” he wrote.
Samuel went on to say, “At least 14 journalists and media workers have been killed in Sri Lanka since 2006, according to Amnesty International. Another 20 have fled overseas after death threats.
“Sri Lanka has been affected by civil war for several decades, predominantly between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a separatist armed organization that fights for the creation of an independent state named Tamil Eelam.
“Over 70,000 people have been officially listed as killed in the war since 1983.”
| Dan Wooding, 68, is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma of 45 years. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS); and US Bureau Chief for the Missionaries News Service (www.missionariesnews.tv) and Safe Worlds IPTV’s Faith, Hope and Charity channel. He was, for ten years, a commentator, on the UPI Radio Network in Washington, DC., and now hosts the weekly "Front Page Radio" show on KWVE in Southern California and which is also carried on the Calvary Radio Network throughout the United States. The program is also aired in Great Britain on UCB UK and Calvary Chapel Radio UK. Wooding is the author of some 42 books, the latest of which is his autobiography, "From Tabloid to Truth", which is published by Theatron Books. To order a copy, go to www.fromtabloidtotruth.com. E-mail: danjuma1@aol.com. |
|
ASSIST News Service (ANS) -
PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609-0609 USA
Visit our web site at: www.assistnews.net -- E-mail: assistnews@aol.com
COLOMBO, SRI LANKA (ANS) -- Following the brutal murder of the Christian editor of a major Sri Lankan newspaper, church leaders along with human rights organizations have voiced their concerns over escalating ethnic violence in the island nation.
|
|
|
Lasantha Wickramatunga |
According to a story written by Dibin Samuel and posted on www.christiantoday.com, the Editor in Chief of the Sunday Leader, Lasantha Wickramatunga, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen on Thursday, January 8, 2009 for “exposing political corruption and human rights abuses related to the government and the opposition Tamil Tigers.”
In a statement, National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka lamented, “The cold blooded murder of Lasantha Wickramatunga has struck the death knell to media freedom in our country.”
It added, “If this violent trend is not arrested and the rule of law is not respected, Sri Lanka will be drawn in to an abyss of death, destruction and anarchy.”
Anglican Bishop Duleep de Chickera of Colombo said in a statement, “The assassination of Lasantha Wikramatunga, in broad daylight on a public road, has sent shock waves of anger, fear and desperation through the country. This deliberate and senseless act ... is part of a wider and worsening strategy to suppress and silence the media.”
Samuel said, “The incident led to an uproar in the country and Christians joined hands with over 10,000 protestors condemning the murder, including journalists, media groups, lawyers, and human rights organizations.”
The president of the bishops' conference in a statement said, “This trend of attacks on the media and wanton killings do not augur well for the country in any way, and it is our earnest hope that this sub-culture of violence and intimidation be arrested at the earliest.”
Samuel went on to say that Lasantha had said previously to his brother that he believed the government would try to kill him.
In paper by Lasantha, titled “And then they came for me” and published three days after the murder, the 50-year-old journalist had predicted his own death. “When finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me,” it read.
“No other profession calls on its practitioners to lay down their lives for their art save the armed forces and, in Sri Lanka, journalism. In the course of the past few years, the independent media have increasingly come under attack. Electronic and print-media institutions have been burnt, bombed, sealed and coerced. Countless journalists have been harassed, threatened and killed. It has been my honor to belong to all those categories and now especially the last,” he wrote.
Samuel went on to say, “At least 14 journalists and media workers have been killed in Sri Lanka since 2006, according to Amnesty International. Another 20 have fled overseas after death threats.
“Sri Lanka has been affected by civil war for several decades, predominantly between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a separatist armed organization that fights for the creation of an independent state named Tamil Eelam.
“Over 70,000 people have been officially listed as killed in the war since 1983.”
| Dan Wooding, 68, is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma of 45 years. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS); and US Bureau Chief for the Missionaries News Service (www.missionariesnews.tv) and Safe Worlds IPTV’s Faith, Hope and Charity channel. He was, for ten years, a commentator, on the UPI Radio Network in Washington, DC., and now hosts the weekly "Front Page Radio" show on KWVE in Southern California and which is also carried on the Calvary Radio Network throughout the United States. The program is also aired in Great Britain on UCB UK and Calvary Chapel Radio UK. Wooding is the author of some 42 books, the latest of which is his autobiography, "From Tabloid to Truth", which is published by Theatron Books. To order a copy, go to www.fromtabloidtotruth.com. E-mail: danjuma1@aol.com. |
|
ASSIST News Service (ANS) -
PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609-0609 USA
Visit our web site at: www.assistnews.net -- E-mail: assistnews@aol.com
COLOMBO, SRI LANKA (ANS) -- Following the brutal murder of the Christian editor of a major Sri Lankan newspaper, church leaders along with human rights organizations have voiced their concerns over escalating ethnic violence in the island nation.
|
|
|
Lasantha Wickramatunga |
According to a story written by Dibin Samuel and posted on www.christiantoday.com, the Editor in Chief of the Sunday Leader, Lasantha Wickramatunga, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen on Thursday, January 8, 2009 for “exposing political corruption and human rights abuses related to the government and the opposition Tamil Tigers.”
In a statement, National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka lamented, “The cold blooded murder of Lasantha Wickramatunga has struck the death knell to media freedom in our country.”
It added, “If this violent trend is not arrested and the rule of law is not respected, Sri Lanka will be drawn in to an abyss of death, destruction and anarchy.”
Anglican Bishop Duleep de Chickera of Colombo said in a statement, “The assassination of Lasantha Wikramatunga, in broad daylight on a public road, has sent shock waves of anger, fear and desperation through the country. This deliberate and senseless act ... is part of a wider and worsening strategy to suppress and silence the media.”
Samuel said, “The incident led to an uproar in the country and Christians joined hands with over 10,000 protestors condemning the murder, including journalists, media groups, lawyers, and human rights organizations.”
The president of the bishops' conference in a statement said, “This trend of attacks on the media and wanton killings do not augur well for the country in any way, and it is our earnest hope that this sub-culture of violence and intimidation be arrested at the earliest.”
Samuel went on to say that Lasantha had said previously to his brother that he believed the government would try to kill him.
In paper by Lasantha, titled “And then they came for me” and published three days after the murder, the 50-year-old journalist had predicted his own death. “When finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me,” it read.
“No other profession calls on its practitioners to lay down their lives for their art save the armed forces and, in Sri Lanka, journalism. In the course of the past few years, the independent media have increasingly come under attack. Electronic and print-media institutions have been burnt, bombed, sealed and coerced. Countless journalists have been harassed, threatened and killed. It has been my honor to belong to all those categories and now especially the last,” he wrote.
Samuel went on to say, “At least 14 journalists and media workers have been killed in Sri Lanka since 2006, according to Amnesty International. Another 20 have fled overseas after death threats.
“Sri Lanka has been affected by civil war for several decades, predominantly between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a separatist armed organization that fights for the creation of an independent state named Tamil Eelam.
“Over 70,000 people have been officially listed as killed in the war since 1983.”
| Dan Wooding, 68, is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma of 45 years. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS); and US Bureau Chief for the Missionaries News Service (www.missionariesnews.tv) and Safe Worlds IPTV’s Faith, Hope and Charity channel. He was, for ten years, a commentator, on the UPI Radio Network in Washington, DC., and now hosts the weekly "Front Page Radio" show on KWVE in Southern California and which is also carried on the Calvary Radio Network throughout the United States. The program is also aired in Great Britain on UCB UK and Calvary Chapel Radio UK. Wooding is the author of some 42 books, the latest of which is his autobiography, "From Tabloid to Truth", which is published by Theatron Books. To order a copy, go to www.fromtabloidtotruth.com. E-mail: danjuma1@aol.com. |
|
ASSIST News Service (ANS) -
PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609-0609 USA
Visit our web site at: www.assistnews.net -- E-mail: assistnews@aol.com
COLOMBO, SRI LANKA (ANS) -- Following the brutal murder of the Christian editor of a major Sri Lankan newspaper, church leaders along with human rights organizations have voiced their concerns over escalating ethnic violence in the island nation.
|
|
|
Lasantha Wickramatunga |
According to a story written by Dibin Samuel and posted on www.christiantoday.com, the Editor in Chief of the Sunday Leader, Lasantha Wickramatunga, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen on Thursday, January 8, 2009 for “exposing political corruption and human rights abuses related to the government and the opposition Tamil Tigers.”
In a statement, National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka lamented, “The cold blooded murder of Lasantha Wickramatunga has struck the death knell to media freedom in our country.”
It added, “If this violent trend is not arrested and the rule of law is not respected, Sri Lanka will be drawn in to an abyss of death, destruction and anarchy.”
Anglican Bishop Duleep de Chickera of Colombo said in a statement, “The assassination of Lasantha Wikramatunga, in broad daylight on a public road, has sent shock waves of anger, fear and desperation through the country. This deliberate and senseless act ... is part of a wider and worsening strategy to suppress and silence the media.”
Samuel said, “The incident led to an uproar in the country and Christians joined hands with over 10,000 protestors condemning the murder, including journalists, media groups, lawyers, and human rights organizations.”
The president of the bishops' conference in a statement said, “This trend of attacks on the media and wanton killings do not augur well for the country in any way, and it is our earnest hope that this sub-culture of violence and intimidation be arrested at the earliest.”
Samuel went on to say that Lasantha had said previously to his brother that he believed the government would try to kill him.
In paper by Lasantha, titled “And then they came for me” and published three days after the murder, the 50-year-old journalist had predicted his own death. “When finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me,” it read.
“No other profession calls on its practitioners to lay down their lives for their art save the armed forces and, in Sri Lanka, journalism. In the course of the past few years, the independent media have increasingly come under attack. Electronic and print-media institutions have been burnt, bombed, sealed and coerced. Countless journalists have been harassed, threatened and killed. It has been my honor to belong to all those categories and now especially the last,” he wrote.
Samuel went on to say, “At least 14 journalists and media workers have been killed in Sri Lanka since 2006, according to Amnesty International. Another 20 have fled overseas after death threats.
“Sri Lanka has been affected by civil war for several decades, predominantly between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a separatist armed organization that fights for the creation of an independent state named Tamil Eelam.
“Over 70,000 people have been officially listed as killed in the war since 1983.”
| Dan Wooding, 68, is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma of 45 years. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS); and US Bureau Chief for the Missionaries News Service (www.missionariesnews.tv) and Safe Worlds IPTV’s Faith, Hope and Charity channel. He was, for ten years, a commentator, on the UPI Radio Network in Washington, DC., and now hosts the weekly "Front Page Radio" show on KWVE in Southern California and which is also carried on the Calvary Radio Network throughout the United States. The program is also aired in Great Britain on UCB UK and Calvary Chapel Radio UK. Wooding is the author of some 42 books, the latest of which is his autobiography, "From Tabloid to Truth", which is published by Theatron Books. To order a copy, go to www.fromtabloidtotruth.com. E-mail: danjuma1@aol.com. |
|
ASSIST News Service (ANS) -
PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609-0609 USA
Visit our web site at: www.assistnews.net -- E-mail: assistnews@aol.com
COLOMBO, SRI LANKA (ANS) -- Following the brutal murder of the Christian editor of a major Sri Lankan newspaper, church leaders along with human rights organizations have voiced their concerns over escalating ethnic violence in the island nation.
|
|
|
Lasantha Wickramatunga |
According to a story written by Dibin Samuel and posted on www.christiantoday.com, the Editor in Chief of the Sunday Leader, Lasantha Wickramatunga, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen on Thursday, January 8, 2009 for “exposing political corruption and human rights abuses related to the government and the opposition Tamil Tigers.”
In a statement, National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka lamented, “The cold blooded murder of Lasantha Wickramatunga has struck the death knell to media freedom in our country.”
It added, “If this violent trend is not arrested and the rule of law is not respected, Sri Lanka will be drawn in to an abyss of death, destruction and anarchy.”
Anglican Bishop Duleep de Chickera of Colombo said in a statement, “The assassination of Lasantha Wikramatunga, in broad daylight on a public road, has sent shock waves of anger, fear and desperation through the country. This deliberate and senseless act ... is part of a wider and worsening strategy to suppress and silence the media.”
Samuel said, “The incident led to an uproar in the country and Christians joined hands with over 10,000 protestors condemning the murder, including journalists, media groups, lawyers, and human rights organizations.”
The president of the bishops' conference in a statement said, “This trend of attacks on the media and wanton killings do not augur well for the country in any way, and it is our earnest hope that this sub-culture of violence and intimidation be arrested at the earliest.”
Samuel went on to say that Lasantha had said previously to his brother that he believed the government would try to kill him.
In paper by Lasantha, titled “And then they came for me” and published three days after the murder, the 50-year-old journalist had predicted his own death. “When finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me,” it read.
“No other profession calls on its practitioners to lay down their lives for their art save the armed forces and, in Sri Lanka, journalism. In the course of the past few years, the independent media have increasingly come under attack. Electronic and print-media institutions have been burnt, bombed, sealed and coerced. Countless journalists have been harassed, threatened and killed. It has been my honor to belong to all those categories and now especially the last,” he wrote.
Samuel went on to say, “At least 14 journalists and media workers have been killed in Sri Lanka since 2006, according to Amnesty International. Another 20 have fled overseas after death threats.
“Sri Lanka has been affected by civil war for several decades, predominantly between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a separatist armed organization that fights for the creation of an independent state named Tamil Eelam.
“Over 70,000 people have been officially listed as killed in the war since 1983.”
| Dan Wooding, 68, is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma of 45 years. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS); and US Bureau Chief for the Missionaries News Service (www.missionariesnews.tv) and Safe Worlds IPTV’s Faith, Hope and Charity channel. He was, for ten years, a commentator, on the UPI Radio Network in Washington, DC., and now hosts the weekly "Front Page Radio" show on KWVE in Southern California and which is also carried on the Calvary Radio Network throughout the United States. The program is also aired in Great Britain on UCB UK and Calvary Chapel Radio UK. Wooding is the author of some 42 books, the latest of which is his autobiography, "From Tabloid to Truth", which is published by Theatron Books. To order a copy, go to www.fromtabloidtotruth.com. E-mail: danjuma1@aol.com. |
|
ASSIST News Service (ANS) -
PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609-0609 USA
Visit our web site at: www.assistnews.net -- E-mail: assistnews@aol.com
COLOMBO, SRI LANKA (ANS) -- Following the brutal murder of the Christian editor of a major Sri Lankan newspaper, church leaders along with human rights organizations have voiced their concerns over escalating ethnic violence in the island nation.
|
|
|
Lasantha Wickramatunga |
According to a story written by Dibin Samuel and posted on www.christiantoday.com, the Editor in Chief of the Sunday Leader, Lasantha Wickramatunga, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen on Thursday, January 8, 2009 for “exposing political corruption and human rights abuses related to the government and the opposition Tamil Tigers.”
In a statement, National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka lamented, “The cold blooded murder of Lasantha Wickramatunga has struck the death knell to media freedom in our country.”
It added, “If this violent trend is not arrested and the rule of law is not respected, Sri Lanka will be drawn in to an abyss of death, destruction and anarchy.”
Anglican Bishop Duleep de Chickera of Colombo said in a statement, “The assassination of Lasantha Wikramatunga, in broad daylight on a public road, has sent shock waves of anger, fear and desperation through the country. This deliberate and senseless act ... is part of a wider and worsening strategy to suppress and silence the media.”
Samuel said, “The incident led to an uproar in the country and Christians joined hands with over 10,000 protestors condemning the murder, including journalists, media groups, lawyers, and human rights organizations.”
The president of the bishops' conference in a statement said, “This trend of attacks on the media and wanton killings do not augur well for the country in any way, and it is our earnest hope that this sub-culture of violence and intimidation be arrested at the earliest.”
Samuel went on to say that Lasantha had said previously to his brother that he believed the government would try to kill him.
In paper by Lasantha, titled “And then they came for me” and published three days after the murder, the 50-year-old journalist had predicted his own death. “When finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me,” it read.
“No other profession calls on its practitioners to lay down their lives for their art save the armed forces and, in Sri Lanka, journalism. In the course of the past few years, the independent media have increasingly come under attack. Electronic and print-media institutions have been burnt, bombed, sealed and coerced. Countless journalists have been harassed, threatened and killed. It has been my honor to belong to all those categories and now especially the last,” he wrote.
Samuel went on to say, “At least 14 journalists and media workers have been killed in Sri Lanka since 2006, according to Amnesty International. Another 20 have fled overseas after death threats.
“Sri Lanka has been affected by civil war for several decades, predominantly between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a separatist armed organization that fights for the creation of an independent state named Tamil Eelam.
“Over 70,000 people have been officially listed as killed in the war since 1983.”
| Dan Wooding, 68, is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma of 45 years. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS); and US Bureau Chief for the Missionaries News Service (www.missionariesnews.tv) and Safe Worlds IPTV’s Faith, Hope and Charity channel. He was, for ten years, a commentator, on the UPI Radio Network in Washington, DC., and now hosts the weekly "Front Page Radio" show on KWVE in Southern California and which is also carried on the Calvary Radio Network throughout the United States. The program is also aired in Great Britain on UCB UK and Calvary Chapel Radio UK. Wooding is the author of some 42 books, the latest of which is his autobiography, "From Tabloid to Truth", which is published by Theatron Books. To order a copy, go to www.fromtabloidtotruth.com. E-mail: danjuma1@aol.com. |
|
ASSIST News Service (ANS) -
PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609-0609 USA
Visit our web site at: www.assistnews.net -- E-mail: assistnews@aol.com
COLOMBO, SRI LANKA (ANS) -- Following the brutal murder of the Christian editor of a major Sri Lankan newspaper, church leaders along with human rights organizations have voiced their concerns over escalating ethnic violence in the island nation.
|
|
|
Lasantha Wickramatunga |
According to a story written by Dibin Samuel and posted on www.christiantoday.com, the Editor in Chief of the Sunday Leader, Lasantha Wickramatunga, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen on Thursday, January 8, 2009 for “exposing political corruption and human rights abuses related to the government and the opposition Tamil Tigers.”
In a statement, National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka lamented, “The cold blooded murder of Lasantha Wickramatunga has struck the death knell to media freedom in our country.”
It added, “If this violent trend is not arrested and the rule of law is not respected, Sri Lanka will be drawn in to an abyss of death, destruction and anarchy.”
Anglican Bishop Duleep de Chickera of Colombo said in a statement, “The assassination of Lasantha Wikramatunga, in broad daylight on a public road, has sent shock waves of anger, fear and desperation through the country. This deliberate and senseless act ... is part of a wider and worsening strategy to suppress and silence the media.”
Samuel said, “The incident led to an uproar in the country and Christians joined hands with over 10,000 protestors condemning the murder, including journalists, media groups, lawyers, and human rights organizations.”
The president of the bishops' conference in a statement said, “This trend of attacks on the media and wanton killings do not augur well for the country in any way, and it is our earnest hope that this sub-culture of violence and intimidation be arrested at the earliest.”
Samuel went on to say that Lasantha had said previously to his brother that he believed the government would try to kill him.
In paper by Lasantha, titled “And then they came for me” and published three days after the murder, the 50-year-old journalist had predicted his own death. “When finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me,” it read.
“No other profession calls on its practitioners to lay down their lives for their art save the armed forces and, in Sri Lanka, journalism. In the course of the past few years, the independent media have increasingly come under attack. Electronic and print-media institutions have been burnt, bombed, sealed and coerced. Countless journalists have been harassed, threatened and killed. It has been my honor to belong to all those categories and now especially the last,” he wrote.
Samuel went on to say, “At least 14 journalists and media workers have been killed in Sri Lanka since 2006, according to Amnesty International. Another 20 have fled overseas after death threats.
“Sri Lanka has been affected by civil war for several decades, predominantly between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a separatist armed organization that fights for the creation of an independent state named Tamil Eelam.
“Over 70,000 people have been officially listed as killed in the war since 1983.”
| Dan Wooding, 68, is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma of 45 years. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS); and US Bureau Chief for the Missionaries News Service (www.missionariesnews.tv) and Safe Worlds IPTV’s Faith, Hope and Charity channel. He was, for ten years, a commentator, on the UPI Radio Network in Washington, DC., and now hosts the weekly "Front Page Radio" show on KWVE in Southern California and which is also carried on the Calvary Radio Network throughout the United States. The program is also aired in Great Britain on UCB UK and Calvary Chapel Radio UK. Wooding is the author of some 42 books, the latest of which is his autobiography, "From Tabloid to Truth", which is published by Theatron Books. To order a copy, go to www.fromtabloidtotruth.com. E-mail: danjuma1@aol.com. |
|
ASSIST News Service (ANS) -
PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609-0609 USA
Visit our web site at: www.assistnews.net -- E-mail: assistnews@aol.com
COLOMBO, SRI LANKA (ANS) -- Following the brutal murder of the Christian editor of a major Sri Lankan newspaper, church leaders along with human rights organizations have voiced their concerns over escalating ethnic violence in the island nation.
|
|
|
Lasantha Wickramatunga |
According to a story written by Dibin Samuel and posted on www.christiantoday.com, the Editor in Chief of the Sunday Leader, Lasantha Wickramatunga, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen on Thursday, January 8, 2009 for “exposing political corruption and human rights abuses related to the government and the opposition Tamil Tigers.”
In a statement, National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka lamented, “The cold blooded murder of Lasantha Wickramatunga has struck the death knell to media freedom in our country.”
It added, “If this violent trend is not arrested and the rule of law is not respected, Sri Lanka will be drawn in to an abyss of death, destruction and anarchy.”
Anglican Bishop Duleep de Chickera of Colombo said in a statement, “The assassination of Lasantha Wikramatunga, in broad daylight on a public road, has sent shock waves of anger, fear and desperation through the country. This deliberate and senseless act ... is part of a wider and worsening strategy to suppress and silence the media.”
Samuel said, “The incident led to an uproar in the country and Christians joined hands with over 10,000 protestors condemning the murder, including journalists, media groups, lawyers, and human rights organizations.”
The president of the bishops' conference in a statement said, “This trend of attacks on the media and wanton killings do not augur well for the country in any way, and it is our earnest hope that this sub-culture of violence and intimidation be arrested at the earliest.”
Samuel went on to say that Lasantha had said previously to his brother that he believed the government would try to kill him.
In paper by Lasantha, titled “And then they came for me” and published three days after the murder, the 50-year-old journalist had predicted his own death. “When finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me,” it read.
“No other profession calls on its practitioners to lay down their lives for their art save the armed forces and, in Sri Lanka, journalism. In the course of the past few years, the independent media have increasingly come under attack. Electronic and print-media institutions have been burnt, bombed, sealed and coerced. Countless journalists have been harassed, threatened and killed. It has been my honor to belong to all those categories and now especially the last,” he wrote.
Samuel went on to say, “At least 14 journalists and media workers have been killed in Sri Lanka since 2006, according to Amnesty International. Another 20 have fled overseas after death threats.
“Sri Lanka has been affected by civil war for several decades, predominantly between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a separatist armed organization that fights for the creation of an independent state named Tamil Eelam.
“Over 70,000 people have been officially listed as killed in the war since 1983.”
| Dan Wooding, 68, is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma of 45 years. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS); and US Bureau Chief for the Missionaries News Service (www.missionariesnews.tv) and Safe Worlds IPTV’s Faith, Hope and Charity channel. He was, for ten years, a commentator, on the UPI Radio Network in Washington, DC., and now hosts the weekly "Front Page Radio" show on KWVE in Southern California and which is also carried on the Calvary Radio Network throughout the United States. The program is also aired in Great Britain on UCB UK and Calvary Chapel Radio UK. Wooding is the author of some 42 books, the latest of which is his autobiography, "From Tabloid to Truth", which is published by Theatron Books. To order a copy, go to www.fromtabloidtotruth.com. E-mail: danjuma1@aol.com. |
|
ASSIST News Service (ANS) -
PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609-0609 USA
Visit our web site at: www.assistnews.net -- E-mail: assistnews@aol.com
COLOMBO, SRI LANKA (ANS) -- Following the brutal murder of the Christian editor of a major Sri Lankan newspaper, church leaders along with human rights organizations have voiced their concerns over escalating ethnic violence in the island nation.
|
|
|
Lasantha Wickramatunga |
According to a story written by Dibin Samuel and posted on www.christiantoday.com, the Editor in Chief of the Sunday Leader, Lasantha Wickramatunga, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen on Thursday, January 8, 2009 for “exposing political corruption and human rights abuses related to the government and the opposition Tamil Tigers.”
In a statement, National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka lamented, “The cold blooded murder of Lasantha Wickramatunga has struck the death knell to media freedom in our country.”
It added, “If this violent trend is not arrested and the rule of law is not respected, Sri Lanka will be drawn in to an abyss of death, destruction and anarchy.”
Anglican Bishop Duleep de Chickera of Colombo said in a statement, “The assassination of Lasantha Wikramatunga, in broad daylight on a public road, has sent shock waves of anger, fear and desperation through the country. This deliberate and senseless act ... is part of a wider and worsening strategy to suppress and silence the media.”
Samuel said, “The incident led to an uproar in the country and Christians joined hands with over 10,000 protestors condemning the murder, including journalists, media groups, lawyers, and human rights organizations.”
The president of the bishops' conference in a statement said, “This trend of attacks on the media and wanton killings do not augur well for the country in any way, and it is our earnest hope that this sub-culture of violence and intimidation be arrested at the earliest.”
Samuel went on to say that Lasantha had said previously to his brother that he believed the government would try to kill him.
In paper by Lasantha, titled “And then they came for me” and published three days after the murder, the 50-year-old journalist had predicted his own death. “When finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me,” it read.
“No other profession calls on its practitioners to lay down their lives for their art save the armed forces and, in Sri Lanka, journalism. In the course of the past few years, the independent media have increasingly come under attack. Electronic and print-media institutions have been burnt, bombed, sealed and coerced. Countless journalists have been harassed, threatened and killed. It has been my honor to belong to all those categories and now especially the last,” he wrote.
Samuel went on to say, “At least 14 journalists and media workers have been killed in Sri Lanka since 2006, according to Amnesty International. Another 20 have fled overseas after death threats.
“Sri Lanka has been affected by civil war for several decades, predominantly between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a separatist armed organization that fights for the creation of an independent state named Tamil Eelam.
“Over 70,000 people have been officially listed as killed in the war since 1983.”
| Dan Wooding, 68, is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma of 45 years. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS); and US Bureau Chief for the Missionaries News Service (www.missionariesnews.tv) and Safe Worlds IPTV’s Faith, Hope and Charity channel. He was, for ten years, a commentator, on the UPI Radio Network in Washington, DC., and now hosts the weekly "Front Page Radio" show on KWVE in Southern California and which is also carried on the Calvary Radio Network throughout the United States. The program is also aired in Great Britain on UCB UK and Calvary Chapel Radio UK. Wooding is the author of some 42 books, the latest of which is his autobiography, "From Tabloid to Truth", which is published by Theatron Books. To order a copy, go to www.fromtabloidtotruth.com. E-mail: danjuma1@aol.com. |
|
ASSIST News Service (ANS) -
PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609-0609 USA
Visit our web site at: www.assistnews.net -- E-mail: assistnews@aol.com
COLOMBO, SRI LANKA (ANS) -- Following the brutal murder of the Christian editor of a major Sri Lankan newspaper, church leaders along with human rights organizations have voiced their concerns over escalating ethnic violence in the island nation.
|
|
|
Lasantha Wickramatunga |
According to a story written by Dibin Samuel and posted on www.christiantoday.com, the Editor in Chief of the Sunday Leader, Lasantha Wickramatunga, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen on Thursday, January 8, 2009 for “exposing political corruption and human rights abuses related to the government and the opposition Tamil Tigers.”
In a statement, National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka lamented, “The cold blooded murder of Lasantha Wickramatunga has struck the death knell to media freedom in our country.”
It added, “If this violent trend is not arrested and the rule of law is not respected, Sri Lanka will be drawn in to an abyss of death, destruction and anarchy.”
Anglican Bishop Duleep de Chickera of Colombo said in a statement, “The assassination of Lasantha Wikramatunga, in broad daylight on a public road, has sent shock waves of anger, fear and desperation through the country. This deliberate and senseless act ... is part of a wider and worsening strategy to suppress and silence the media.”
Samuel said, “The incident led to an uproar in the country and Christians joined hands with over 10,000 protestors condemning the murder, including journalists, media groups, lawyers, and human rights organizations.”
The president of the bishops' conference in a statement said, “This trend of attacks on the media and wanton killings do not augur well for the country in any way, and it is our earnest hope that this sub-culture of violence and intimidation be arrested at the earliest.”
Samuel went on to say that Lasantha had said previously to his brother that he believed the government would try to kill him.
In paper by Lasantha, titled “And then they came for me” and published three days after the murder, the 50-year-old journalist had predicted his own death. “When finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me,” it read.
“No other profession calls on its practitioners to lay down their lives for their art save the armed forces and, in Sri Lanka, journalism. In the course of the past few years, the independent media have increasingly come under attack. Electronic and print-media institutions have been burnt, bombed, sealed and coerced. Countless journalists have been harassed, threatened and killed. It has been my honor to belong to all those categories and now especially the last,” he wrote.
Samuel went on to say, “At least 14 journalists and media workers have been killed in Sri Lanka since 2006, according to Amnesty International. Another 20 have fled overseas after death threats.
“Sri Lanka has been affected by civil war for several decades, predominantly between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a separatist armed organization that fights for the creation of an independent state named Tamil Eelam.
“Over 70,000 people have been officially listed as killed in the war since 1983.”
| Dan Wooding, 68, is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma of 45 years. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS); and US Bureau Chief for the Missionaries News Service (www.missionariesnews.tv) and Safe Worlds IPTV’s Faith, Hope and Charity channel. He was, for ten years, a commentator, on the UPI Radio Network in Washington, DC., and now hosts the weekly "Front Page Radio" show on KWVE in Southern California and which is also carried on the Calvary Radio Network throughout the United States. The program is also aired in Great Britain on UCB UK and Calvary Chapel Radio UK. Wooding is the author of some 42 books, the latest of which is his autobiography, "From Tabloid to Truth", which is published by Theatron Books. To order a copy, go to www.fromtabloidtotruth.com. E-mail: danjuma1@aol.com. |
|
ASSIST News Service (ANS) -
PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609-0609 USA
Visit our web site at: www.assistnews.net -- E-mail: assistnews@aol.com
COLOMBO, SRI LANKA (ANS) -- Following the brutal murder of the Christian editor of a major Sri Lankan newspaper, church leaders along with human rights organizations have voiced their concerns over escalating ethnic violence in the island nation.
|
|
|
Lasantha Wickramatunga |
According to a story written by Dibin Samuel and posted on www.christiantoday.com, the Editor in Chief of the Sunday Leader, Lasantha Wickramatunga, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen on Thursday, January 8, 2009 for “exposing political corruption and human rights abuses related to the government and the opposition Tamil Tigers.”
In a statement, National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka lamented, “The cold blooded murder of Lasantha Wickramatunga has struck the death knell to media freedom in our country.”
It added, “If this violent trend is not arrested and the rule of law is not respected, Sri Lanka will be drawn in to an abyss of death, destruction and anarchy.”
Anglican Bishop Duleep de Chickera of Colombo said in a statement, “The assassination of Lasantha Wikramatunga, in broad daylight on a public road, has sent shock waves of anger, fear and desperation through the country. This deliberate and senseless act ... is part of a wider and worsening strategy to suppress and silence the media.”
Samuel said, “The incident led to an uproar in the country and Christians joined hands with over 10,000 protestors condemning the murder, including journalists, media groups, lawyers, and human rights organizations.”
The president of the bishops' conference in a statement said, “This trend of attacks on the media and wanton killings do not augur well for the country in any way, and it is our earnest hope that this sub-culture of violence and intimidation be arrested at the earliest.”
Samuel went on to say that Lasantha had said previously to his brother that he believed the government would try to kill him.
In paper by Lasantha, titled “And then they came for me” and published three days after the murder, the 50-year-old journalist had predicted his own death. “When finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me,” it read.
“No other profession calls on its practitioners to lay down their lives for their art save the armed forces and, in Sri Lanka, journalism. In the course of the past few years, the independent media have increasingly come under attack. Electronic and print-media institutions have been burnt, bombed, sealed and coerced. Countless journalists have been harassed, threatened and killed. It has been my honor to belong to all those categories and now especially the last,” he wrote.
Samuel went on to say, “At least 14 journalists and media workers have been killed in Sri Lanka since 2006, according to Amnesty International. Another 20 have fled overseas after death threats.
“Sri Lanka has been affected by civil war for several decades, predominantly between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a separatist armed organization that fights for the creation of an independent state named Tamil Eelam.
“Over 70,000 people have been officially listed as killed in the war since 1983.”
| Dan Wooding, 68, is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma of 45 years. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS); and US Bureau Chief for the Missionaries News Service (www.missionariesnews.tv) and Safe Worlds IPTV’s Faith, Hope and Charity channel. He was, for ten years, a commentator, on the UPI Radio Network in Washington, DC., and now hosts the weekly "Front Page Radio" show on KWVE in Southern California and which is also carried on the Calvary Radio Network throughout the United States. The program is also aired in Great Britain on UCB UK and Calvary Chapel Radio UK. Wooding is the author of some 42 books, the latest of which is his autobiography, "From Tabloid to Truth", which is published by Theatron Books. To order a copy, go to www.fromtabloidtotruth.com. E-mail: danjuma1@aol.com. |
|
ASSIST News Service (ANS) -
PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609-0609 USA
Visit our web site at: www.assistnews.net -- E-mail: assistnews@aol.com
COLOMBO, SRI LANKA (ANS) -- Following the brutal murder of the Christian editor of a major Sri Lankan newspaper, church leaders along with human rights organizations have voiced their concerns over escalating ethnic violence in the island nation.
|
|
|
Lasantha Wickramatunga |
According to a story written by Dibin Samuel and posted on www.christiantoday.com, the Editor in Chief of the Sunday Leader, Lasantha Wickramatunga, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen on Thursday, January 8, 2009 for “exposing political corruption and human rights abuses related to the government and the opposition Tamil Tigers.”
In a statement, National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka lamented, “The cold blooded murder of Lasantha Wickramatunga has struck the death knell to media freedom in our country.”
It added, “If this violent trend is not arrested and the rule of law is not respected, Sri Lanka will be drawn in to an abyss of death, destruction and anarchy.”
Anglican Bishop Duleep de Chickera of Colombo said in a statement, “The assassination of Lasantha Wikramatunga, in broad daylight on a public road, has sent shock waves of anger, fear and desperation through the country. This deliberate and senseless act ... is part of a wider and worsening strategy to suppress and silence the media.”
Samuel said, “The incident led to an uproar in the country and Christians joined hands with over 10,000 protestors condemning the murder, including journalists, media groups, lawyers, and human rights organizations.”
The president of the bishops' conference in a statement said, “This trend of attacks on the media and wanton killings do not augur well for the country in any way, and it is our earnest hope that this sub-culture of violence and intimidation be arrested at the earliest.”
Samuel went on to say that Lasantha had said previously to his brother that he believed the government would try to kill him.
In paper by Lasantha, titled “And then they came for me” and published three days after the murder, the 50-year-old journalist had predicted his own death. “When finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me,” it read.
“No other profession calls on its practitioners to lay down their lives for their art save the armed forces and, in Sri Lanka, journalism. In the course of the past few years, the independent media have increasingly come under attack. Electronic and print-media institutions have been burnt, bombed, sealed and coerced. Countless journalists have been harassed, threatened and killed. It has been my honor to belong to all those categories and now especially the last,” he wrote.
Samuel went on to say, “At least 14 journalists and media workers have been killed in Sri Lanka since 2006, according to Amnesty International. Another 20 have fled overseas after death threats.
“Sri Lanka has been affected by civil war for several decades, predominantly between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a separatist armed organization that fights for the creation of an independent state named Tamil Eelam.
“Over 70,000 people have been officially listed as killed in the war since 1983.”
| Dan Wooding, 68, is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma of 45 years. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS); and US Bureau Chief for the Missionaries News Service (www.missionariesnews.tv) and Safe Worlds IPTV’s Faith, Hope and Charity channel. He was, for ten years, a commentator, on the UPI Radio Network in Washington, DC., and now hosts the weekly "Front Page Radio" show on KWVE in Southern California and which is also carried on the Calvary Radio Network throughout the United States. The program is also aired in Great Britain on UCB UK and Calvary Chapel Radio UK. Wooding is the author of some 42 books, the latest of which is his autobiography, "From Tabloid to Truth", which is published by Theatron Books. To order a copy, go to www.fromtabloidtotruth.com. E-mail: danjuma1@aol.com. |
|
ASSIST News Service (ANS) -
PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609-0609 USA
Visit our web site at: www.assistnews.net -- E-mail: assistnews@aol.com
COLOMBO, SRI LANKA (ANS) -- Following the brutal murder of the Christian editor of a major Sri Lankan newspaper, church leaders along with human rights organizations have voiced their concerns over escalating ethnic violence in the island nation.
|
|
|
Lasantha Wickramatunga |
According to a story written by Dibin Samuel and posted on www.christiantoday.com, the Editor in Chief of the Sunday Leader, Lasantha Wickramatunga, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen on Thursday, January 8, 2009 for “exposing political corruption and human rights abuses related to the government and the opposition Tamil Tigers.”
In a statement, National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka lamented, “The cold blooded murder of Lasantha Wickramatunga has struck the death knell to media freedom in our country.”
It added, “If this violent trend is not arrested and the rule of law is not respected, Sri Lanka will be drawn in to an abyss of death, destruction and anarchy.”
Anglican Bishop Duleep de Chickera of Colombo said in a statement, “The assassination of Lasantha Wikramatunga, in broad daylight on a public road, has sent shock waves of anger, fear and desperation through the country. This deliberate and senseless act ... is part of a wider and worsening strategy to suppress and silence the media.”
Samuel said, “The incident led to an uproar in the country and Christians joined hands with over 10,000 protestors condemning the murder, including journalists, media groups, lawyers, and human rights organizations.”
The president of the bishops' conference in a statement said, “This trend of attacks on the media and wanton killings do not augur well for the country in any way, and it is our earnest hope that this sub-culture of violence and intimidation be arrested at the earliest.”
Samuel went on to say that Lasantha had said previously to his brother that he believed the government would try to kill him.
In paper by Lasantha, titled “And then they came for me” and published three days after the murder, the 50-year-old journalist had predicted his own death. “When finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me,” it read.
“No other profession calls on its practitioners to lay down their lives for their art save the armed forces and, in Sri Lanka, journalism. In the course of the past few years, the independent media have increasingly come under attack. Electronic and print-media institutions have been burnt, bombed, sealed and coerced. Countless journalists have been harassed, threatened and killed. It has been my honor to belong to all those categories and now especially the last,” he wrote.
Samuel went on to say, “At least 14 journalists and media workers have been killed in Sri Lanka since 2006, according to Amnesty International. Another 20 have fled overseas after death threats.
“Sri Lanka has been affected by civil war for several decades, predominantly between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a separatist armed organization that fights for the creation of an independent state named Tamil Eelam.
“Over 70,000 people have been officially listed as killed in the war since 1983.”
| Dan Wooding, 68, is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma of 45 years. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS); and US Bureau Chief for the Missionaries News Service (www.missionariesnews.tv) and Safe Worlds IPTV’s Faith, Hope and Charity channel. He was, for ten years, a commentator, on the UPI Radio Network in Washington, DC., and now hosts the weekly "Front Page Radio" show on KWVE in Southern California and which is also carried on the Calvary Radio Network throughout the United States. The program is also aired in Great Britain on UCB UK and Calvary Chapel Radio UK. Wooding is the author of some 42 books, the latest of which is his autobiography, "From Tabloid to Truth", which is published by Theatron Books. To order a copy, go to www.fromtabloidtotruth.com. E-mail: danjuma1@aol.com. |
|
ASSIST News Service (ANS) -
PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609-0609 USA
Visit our web site at: www.assistnews.net -- E-mail: assistnews@aol.com
COLOMBO, SRI LANKA (ANS) -- Following the brutal murder of the Christian editor of a major Sri Lankan newspaper, church leaders along with human rights organizations have voiced their concerns over escalating ethnic violence in the island nation.
|
|
|
Lasantha Wickramatunga |
According to a story written by Dibin Samuel and posted on www.christiantoday.com, the Editor in Chief of the Sunday Leader, Lasantha Wickramatunga, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen on Thursday, January 8, 2009 for “exposing political corruption and human rights abuses related to the government and the opposition Tamil Tigers.”
In a statement, National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka lamented, “The cold blooded murder of Lasantha Wickramatunga has struck the death knell to media freedom in our country.”
It added, “If this violent trend is not arrested and the rule of law is not respected, Sri Lanka will be drawn in to an abyss of death, destruction and anarchy.”
Anglican Bishop Duleep de Chickera of Colombo said in a statement, “The assassination of Lasantha Wikramatunga, in broad daylight on a public road, has sent shock waves of anger, fear and desperation through the country. This deliberate and senseless act ... is part of a wider and worsening strategy to suppress and silence the media.”
Samuel said, “The incident led to an uproar in the country and Christians joined hands with over 10,000 protestors condemning the murder, including journalists, media groups, lawyers, and human rights organizations.”
The president of the bishops' conference in a statement said, “This trend of attacks on the media and wanton killings do not augur well for the country in any way, and it is our earnest hope that this sub-culture of violence and intimidation be arrested at the earliest.”
Samuel went on to say that Lasantha had said previously to his brother that he believed the government would try to kill him.
In paper by Lasantha, titled “And then they came for me” and published three days after the murder, the 50-year-old journalist had predicted his own death. “When finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me,” it read.
“No other profession calls on its practitioners to lay down their lives for their art save the armed forces and, in Sri Lanka, journalism. In the course of the past few years, the independent media have increasingly come under attack. Electronic and print-media institutions have been burnt, bombed, sealed and coerced. Countless journalists have been harassed, threatened and killed. It has been my honor to belong to all those categories and now especially the last,” he wrote.
Samuel went on to say, “At least 14 journalists and media workers have been killed in Sri Lanka since 2006, according to Amnesty International. Another 20 have fled overseas after death threats.
“Sri Lanka has been affected by civil war for several decades, predominantly between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a separatist armed organization that fights for the creation of an independent state named Tamil Eelam.
“Over 70,000 people have been officially listed as killed in the war since 1983.”
| Dan Wooding, 68, is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma of 45 years. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS); and US Bureau Chief for the Missionaries News Service (www.missionariesnews.tv) and Safe Worlds IPTV’s Faith, Hope and Charity channel. He was, for ten years, a commentator, on the UPI Radio Network in Washington, DC., and now hosts the weekly "Front Page Radio" show on KWVE in Southern California and which is also carried on the Calvary Radio Network throughout the United States. The program is also aired in Great Britain on UCB UK and Calvary Chapel Radio UK. Wooding is the author of some 42 books, the latest of which is his autobiography, "From Tabloid to Truth", which is published by Theatron Books. To order a copy, go to www.fromtabloidtotruth.com. E-mail: danjuma1@aol.com. |
|
ASSIST News Service (ANS) -
PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609-0609 USA
Visit our web site at: www.assistnews.net -- E-mail: assistnews@aol.com
COLOMBO, SRI LANKA (ANS) -- Following the brutal murder of the Christian editor of a major Sri Lankan newspaper, church leaders along with human rights organizations have voiced their concerns over escalating ethnic violence in the island nation.
|
|
|
Lasantha Wickramatunga |
According to a story written by Dibin Samuel and posted on www.christiantoday.com, the Editor in Chief of the Sunday Leader, Lasantha Wickramatunga, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen on Thursday, January 8, 2009 for “exposing political corruption and human rights abuses related to the government and the opposition Tamil Tigers.”
In a statement, National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka lamented, “The cold blooded murder of Lasantha Wickramatunga has struck the death knell to media freedom in our country.”
It added, “If this violent trend is not arrested and the rule of law is not respected, Sri Lanka will be drawn in to an abyss of death, destruction and anarchy.”
Anglican Bishop Duleep de Chickera of Colombo said in a statement, “The assassination of Lasantha Wikramatunga, in broad daylight on a public road, has sent shock waves of anger, fear and desperation through the country. This deliberate and senseless act ... is part of a wider and worsening strategy to suppress and silence the media.”
Samuel said, “The incident led to an uproar in the country and Christians joined hands with over 10,000 protestors condemning the murder, including journalists, media groups, lawyers, and human rights organizations.”
The president of the bishops' conference in a statement said, “This trend of attacks on the media and wanton killings do not augur well for the country in any way, and it is our earnest hope that this sub-culture of violence and intimidation be arrested at the earliest.”
Samuel went on to say that Lasantha had said previously to his brother that he believed the government would try to kill him.
In paper by Lasantha, titled “And then they came for me” and published three days after the murder, the 50-year-old journalist had predicted his own death. “When finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me,” it read.
“No other profession calls on its practitioners to lay down their lives for their art save the armed forces and, in Sri Lanka, journalism. In the course of the past few years, the independent media have increasingly come under attack. Electronic and print-media institutions have been burnt, bombed, sealed and coerced. Countless journalists have been harassed, threatened and killed. It has been my honor to belong to all those categories and now especially the last,” he wrote.
Samuel went on to say, “At least 14 journalists and media workers have been killed in Sri Lanka since 2006, according to Amnesty International. Another 20 have fled overseas after death threats.
“Sri Lanka has been affected by civil war for several decades, predominantly between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a separatist armed organization that fights for the creation of an independent state named Tamil Eelam.
“Over 70,000 people have been officially listed as killed in the war since 1983.”
| Dan Wooding, 68, is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma of 45 years. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS); and US Bureau Chief for the Missionaries News Service (www.missionariesnews.tv) and Safe Worlds IPTV’s Faith, Hope and Charity channel. He was, for ten years, a commentator, on the UPI Radio Network in Washington, DC., and now hosts the weekly "Front Page Radio" show on KWVE in Southern California and which is also carried on the Calvary Radio Network throughout the United States. The program is also aired in Great Britain on UCB UK and Calvary Chapel Radio UK. Wooding is the author of some 42 books, the latest of which is his autobiography, "From Tabloid to Truth", which is published by Theatron Books. To order a copy, go to www.fromtabloidtotruth.com. E-mail: danjuma1@aol.com. |
|
ASSIST News Service (ANS) -
PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609-0609 USA
Visit our web site at: www.assistnews.net -- E-mail: assistnews@aol.com
COLOMBO, SRI LANKA (ANS) -- Following the brutal murder of the Christian editor of a major Sri Lankan newspaper, church leaders along with human rights organizations have voiced their concerns over escalating ethnic violence in the island nation.
|
|
|
Lasantha Wickramatunga |
According to a story written by Dibin Samuel and posted on www.christiantoday.com, the Editor in Chief of the Sunday Leader, Lasantha Wickramatunga, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen on Thursday, January 8, 2009 for “exposing political corruption and human rights abuses related to the government and the opposition Tamil Tigers.”
In a statement, National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka lamented, “The cold blooded murder of Lasantha Wickramatunga has struck the death knell to media freedom in our country.”
It added, “If this violent trend is not arrested and the rule of law is not respected, Sri Lanka will be drawn in to an abyss of death, destruction and anarchy.”
Anglican Bishop Duleep de Chickera of Colombo said in a statement, “The assassination of Lasantha Wikramatunga, in broad daylight on a public road, has sent shock waves of anger, fear and desperation through the country. This deliberate and senseless act ... is part of a wider and worsening strategy to suppress and silence the media.”
Samuel said, “The incident led to an uproar in the country and Christians joined hands with over 10,000 protestors condemning the murder, including journalists, media groups, lawyers, and human rights organizations.”
The president of the bishops' conference in a statement said, “This trend of attacks on the media and wanton killings do not augur well for the country in any way, and it is our earnest hope that this sub-culture of violence and intimidation be arrested at the earliest.”
Samuel went on to say that Lasantha had said previously to his brother that he believed the government would try to kill him.
In paper by Lasantha, titled “And then they came for me” and published three days after the murder, the 50-year-old journalist had predicted his own death. “When finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me,” it read.
“No other profession calls on its practitioners to lay down their lives for their art save the armed forces and, in Sri Lanka, journalism. In the course of the past few years, the independent media have increasingly come under attack. Electronic and print-media institutions have been burnt, bombed, sealed and coerced. Countless journalists have been harassed, threatened and killed. It has been my honor to belong to all those categories and now especially the last,” he wrote.
Samuel went on to say, “At least 14 journalists and media workers have been killed in Sri Lanka since 2006, according to Amnesty International. Another 20 have fled overseas after death threats.
“Sri Lanka has been affected by civil war for several decades, predominantly between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a separatist armed organization that fights for the creation of an independent state named Tamil Eelam.
“Over 70,000 people have been officially listed as killed in the war since 1983.”
| Dan Wooding, 68, is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma of 45 years. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS); and US Bureau Chief for the Missionaries News Service (www.missionariesnews.tv) and Safe Worlds IPTV’s Faith, Hope and Charity channel. He was, for ten years, a commentator, on the UPI Radio Network in Washington, DC., and now hosts the weekly "Front Page Radio" show on KWVE in Southern California and which is also carried on the Calvary Radio Network throughout the United States. The program is also aired in Great Britain on UCB UK and Calvary Chapel Radio UK. Wooding is the author of some 42 books, the latest of which is his autobiography, "From Tabloid to Truth", which is published by Theatron Books. To order a copy, go to www.fromtabloidtotruth.com. E-mail: danjuma1@aol.com. |
|
ASSIST News Service (ANS) -
PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609-0609 USA
Visit our web site at: www.assistnews.net -- E-mail: assistnews@aol.com
COLOMBO, SRI LANKA (ANS) -- Following the brutal murder of the Christian editor of a major Sri Lankan newspaper, church leaders along with human rights organizations have voiced their concerns over escalating ethnic violence in the island nation.
|
|
|
Lasantha Wickramatunga |
According to a story written by Dibin Samuel and posted on www.christiantoday.com, the Editor in Chief of the Sunday Leader, Lasantha Wickramatunga, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen on Thursday, January 8, 2009 for “exposing political corruption and human rights abuses related to the government and the opposition Tamil Tigers.”
In a statement, National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka lamented, “The cold blooded murder of Lasantha Wickramatunga has struck the death knell to media freedom in our country.”
It added, “If this violent trend is not arrested and the rule of law is not respected, Sri Lanka will be drawn in to an abyss of death, destruction and anarchy.”
Anglican Bishop Duleep de Chickera of Colombo said in a statement, “The assassination of Lasantha Wikramatunga, in broad daylight on a public road, has sent shock waves of anger, fear and desperation through the country. This deliberate and senseless act ... is part of a wider and worsening strategy to suppress and silence the media.”
Samuel said, “The incident led to an uproar in the country and Christians joined hands with over 10,000 protestors condemning the murder, including journalists, media groups, lawyers, and human rights organizations.”
The president of the bishops' conference in a statement said, “This trend of attacks on the media and wanton killings do not augur well for the country in any way, and it is our earnest hope that this sub-culture of violence and intimidation be arrested at the earliest.”
Samuel went on to say that Lasantha had said previously to his brother that he believed the government would try to kill him.
In paper by Lasantha, titled “And then they came for me” and published three days after the murder, the 50-year-old journalist had predicted his own death. “When finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me,” it read.
“No other profession calls on its practitioners to lay down their lives for their art save the armed forces and, in Sri Lanka, journalism. In the course of the past few years, the independent media have increasingly come under attack. Electronic and print-media institutions have been burnt, bombed, sealed and coerced. Countless journalists have been harassed, threatened and killed. It has been my honor to belong to all those categories and now especially the last,” he wrote.
Samuel went on to say, “At least 14 journalists and media workers have been killed in Sri Lanka since 2006, according to Amnesty International. Another 20 have fled overseas after death threats.
“Sri Lanka has been affected by civil war for several decades, predominantly between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a separatist armed organization that fights for the creation of an independent state named Tamil Eelam.
“Over 70,000 people have been officially listed as killed in the war since 1983.”
| Dan Wooding, 68, is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma of 45 years. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS); and US Bureau Chief for the Missionaries News Service (www.missionariesnews.tv) and Safe Worlds IPTV’s Faith, Hope and Charity channel. He was, for ten years, a commentator, on the UPI Radio Network in Washington, DC., and now hosts the weekly "Front Page Radio" show on KWVE in Southern California and which is also carried on the Calvary Radio Network throughout the United States. The program is also aired in Great Britain on UCB UK and Calvary Chapel Radio UK. Wooding is the author of some 42 books, the latest of which is his autobiography, "From Tabloid to Truth", which is published by Theatron Books. To order a copy, go to www.fromtabloidtotruth.com. E-mail: danjuma1@aol.com. |
|
ASSIST News Service (ANS) -
PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609-0609 USA
Visit our web site at: www.assistnews.net -- E-mail: assistnews@aol.com
COLOMBO, SRI LANKA (ANS) -- Following the brutal murder of the Christian editor of a major Sri Lankan newspaper, church leaders along with human rights organizations have voiced their concerns over escalating ethnic violence in the island nation.
|
|
|
Lasantha Wickramatunga |
According to a story written by Dibin Samuel and posted on www.christiantoday.com, the Editor in Chief of the Sunday Leader, Lasantha Wickramatunga, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen on Thursday, January 8, 2009 for “exposing political corruption and human rights abuses related to the government and the opposition Tamil Tigers.”
In a statement, National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka lamented, “The cold blooded murder of Lasantha Wickramatunga has struck the death knell to media freedom in our country.”
It added, “If this violent trend is not arrested and the rule of law is not respected, Sri Lanka will be drawn in to an abyss of death, destruction and anarchy.”
Anglican Bishop Duleep de Chickera of Colombo said in a statement, “The assassination of Lasantha Wikramatunga, in broad daylight on a public road, has sent shock waves of anger, fear and desperation through the country. This deliberate and senseless act ... is part of a wider and worsening strategy to suppress and silence the media.”
Samuel said, “The incident led to an uproar in the country and Christians joined hands with over 10,000 protestors condemning the murder, including journalists, media groups, lawyers, and human rights organizations.”
The president of the bishops' conference in a statement said, “This trend of attacks on the media and wanton killings do not augur well for the country in any way, and it is our earnest hope that this sub-culture of violence and intimidation be arrested at the earliest.”
Samuel went on to say that Lasantha had said previously to his brother that he believed the government would try to kill him.
In paper by Lasantha, titled “And then they came for me” and published three days after the murder, the 50-year-old journalist had predicted his own death. “When finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me,” it read.
“No other profession calls on its practitioners to lay down their lives for their art save the armed forces and, in Sri Lanka, journalism. In the course of the past few years, the independent media have increasingly come under attack. Electronic and print-media institutions have been burnt, bombed, sealed and coerced. Countless journalists have been harassed, threatened and killed. It has been my honor to belong to all those categories and now especially the last,” he wrote.
Samuel went on to say, “At least 14 journalists and media workers have been killed in Sri Lanka since 2006, according to Amnesty International. Another 20 have fled overseas after death threats.
“Sri Lanka has been affected by civil war for several decades, predominantly between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a separatist armed organization that fights for the creation of an independent state named Tamil Eelam.
“Over 70,000 people have been officially listed as killed in the war since 1983.”
| Dan Wooding, 68, is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma of 45 years. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS); and US Bureau Chief for the Missionaries News Service (www.missionariesnews.tv) and Safe Worlds IPTV’s Faith, Hope and Charity channel. He was, for ten years, a commentator, on the UPI Radio Network in Washington, DC., and now hosts the weekly "Front Page Radio" show on KWVE in Southern California and which is also carried on the Calvary Radio Network throughout the United States. The program is also aired in Great Britain on UCB UK and Calvary Chapel Radio UK. Wooding is the author of some 42 books, the latest of which is his autobiography, "From Tabloid to Truth", which is published by Theatron Books. To order a copy, go to www.fromtabloidtotruth.com. E-mail: danjuma1@aol.com. |
|
ASSIST News Service (ANS) -
PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609-0609 USA
Visit our web site at: www.assistnews.net -- E-mail: assistnews@aol.com
COLOMBO, SRI LANKA (ANS) -- Following the brutal murder of the Christian editor of a major Sri Lankan newspaper, church leaders along with human rights organizations have voiced their concerns over escalating ethnic violence in the island nation.
|
|
|
Lasantha Wickramatunga |
According to a story written by Dibin Samuel and posted on www.christiantoday.com, the Editor in Chief of the Sunday Leader, Lasantha Wickramatunga, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen on Thursday, January 8, 2009 for “exposing political corruption and human rights abuses related to the government and the opposition Tamil Tigers.”
In a statement, National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka lamented, “The cold blooded murder of Lasantha Wickramatunga has struck the death knell to media freedom in our country.”
It added, “If this violent trend is not arrested and the rule of law is not respected, Sri Lanka will be drawn in to an abyss of death, destruction and anarchy.”
Anglican Bishop Duleep de Chickera of Colombo said in a statement, “The assassination of Lasantha Wikramatunga, in broad daylight on a public road, has sent shock waves of anger, fear and desperation through the country. This deliberate and senseless act ... is part of a wider and worsening strategy to suppress and silence the media.”
Samuel said, “The incident led to an uproar in the country and Christians joined hands with over 10,000 protestors condemning the murder, including journalists, media groups, lawyers, and human rights organizations.”
The president of the bishops' conference in a statement said, “This trend of attacks on the media and wanton killings do not augur well for the country in any way, and it is our earnest hope that this sub-culture of violence and intimidation be arrested at the earliest.”
Samuel went on to say that Lasantha had said previously to his brother that he believed the government would try to kill him.
In paper by Lasantha, titled “And then they came for me” and published three days after the murder, the 50-year-old journalist had predicted his own death. “When finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me,” it read.
“No other profession calls on its practitioners to lay down their lives for their art save the armed forces and, in Sri Lanka, journalism. In the course of the past few years, the independent media have increasingly come under attack. Electronic and print-media institutions have been burnt, bombed, sealed and coerced. Countless journalists have been harassed, threatened and killed. It has been my honor to belong to all those categories and now especially the last,” he wrote.
Samuel went on to say, “At least 14 journalists and media workers have been killed in Sri Lanka since 2006, according to Amnesty International. Another 20 have fled overseas after death threats.
“Sri Lanka has been affected by civil war for several decades, predominantly between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a separatist armed organization that fights for the creation of an independent state named Tamil Eelam.
“Over 70,000 people have been officially listed as killed in the war since 1983.”
| Dan Wooding, 68, is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma of 45 years. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS); and US Bureau Chief for the Missionaries News Service (www.missionariesnews.tv) and Safe Worlds IPTV’s Faith, Hope and Charity channel. He was, for ten years, a commentator, on the UPI Radio Network in Washington, DC., and now hosts the weekly "Front Page Radio" show on KWVE in Southern California and which is also carried on the Calvary Radio Network throughout the United States. The program is also aired in Great Britain on UCB UK and Calvary Chapel Radio UK. Wooding is the author of some 42 books, the latest of which is his autobiography, "From Tabloid to Truth", which is published by Theatron Books. To order a copy, go to www.fromtabloidtotruth.com. E-mail: danjuma1@aol.com. |
|
ASSIST News Service (ANS) -
PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609-0609 USA
Visit our web site at: www.assistnews.net -- E-mail: assistnews@aol.com
COLOMBO, SRI LANKA (ANS) -- Following the brutal murder of the Christian editor of a major Sri Lankan newspaper, church leaders along with human rights organizations have voiced their concerns over escalating ethnic violence in the island nation.
|
|
|
Lasantha Wickramatunga |
According to a story written by Dibin Samuel and posted on www.christiantoday.com, the Editor in Chief of the Sunday Leader, Lasantha Wickramatunga, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen on Thursday, January 8, 2009 for “exposing political corruption and human rights abuses related to the government and the opposition Tamil Tigers.”
In a statement, National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka lamented, “The cold blooded murder of Lasantha Wickramatunga has struck the death knell to media freedom in our country.”
It added, “If this violent trend is not arrested and the rule of law is not respected, Sri Lanka will be drawn in to an abyss of death, destruction and anarchy.”
Anglican Bishop Duleep de Chickera of Colombo said in a statement, “The assassination of Lasantha Wikramatunga, in broad daylight on a public road, has sent shock waves of anger, fear and desperation through the country. This deliberate and senseless act ... is part of a wider and worsening strategy to suppress and silence the media.”
Samuel said, “The incident led to an uproar in the country and Christians joined hands with over 10,000 protestors condemning the murder, including journalists, media groups, lawyers, and human rights organizations.”
The president of the bishops' conference in a statement said, “This trend of attacks on the media and wanton killings do not augur well for the country in any way, and it is our earnest hope that this sub-culture of violence and intimidation be arrested at the earliest.”
Samuel went on to say that Lasantha had said previously to his brother that he believed the government would try to kill him.
In paper by Lasantha, titled “And then they came for me” and published three days after the murder, the 50-year-old journalist had predicted his own death. “When finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me,” it read.
“No other profession calls on its practitioners to lay down their lives for their art save the armed forces and, in Sri Lanka, journalism. In the course of the past few years, the independent media have increasingly come under attack. Electronic and print-media institutions have been burnt, bombed, sealed and coerced. Countless journalists have been harassed, threatened and killed. It has been my honor to belong to all those categories and now especially the last,” he wrote.
Samuel went on to say, “At least 14 journalists and media workers have been killed in Sri Lanka since 2006, according to Amnesty International. Another 20 have fled overseas after death threats.
“Sri Lanka has been affected by civil war for several decades, predominantly between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a separatist armed organization that fights for the creation of an independent state named Tamil Eelam.
“Over 70,000 people have been officially listed as killed in the war since 1983.”
| Dan Wooding, 68, is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma of 45 years. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS); and US Bureau Chief for the Missionaries News Service (www.missionariesnews.tv) and Safe Worlds IPTV’s Faith, Hope and Charity channel. He was, for ten years, a commentator, on the UPI Radio Network in Washington, DC., and now hosts the weekly "Front Page Radio" show on KWVE in Southern California and which is also carried on the Calvary Radio Network throughout the United States. The program is also aired in Great Britain on UCB UK and Calvary Chapel Radio UK. Wooding is the author of some 42 books, the latest of which is his autobiography, "From Tabloid to Truth", which is published by Theatron Books. To order a copy, go to www.fromtabloidtotruth.com. E-mail: danjuma1@aol.com. |
|
ASSIST News Service (ANS) -
PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609-0609 USA
Visit our web site at: www.assistnews.net -- E-mail: assistnews@aol.com
COLOMBO, SRI LANKA (ANS) -- Following the brutal murder of the Christian editor of a major Sri Lankan newspaper, church leaders along with human rights organizations have voiced their concerns over escalating ethnic violence in the island nation.
|
|
|
Lasantha Wickramatunga |
According to a story written by Dibin Samuel and posted on www.christiantoday.com, the Editor in Chief of the Sunday Leader, Lasantha Wickramatunga, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen on Thursday, January 8, 2009 for “exposing political corruption and human rights abuses related to the government and the opposition Tamil Tigers.”
In a statement, National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka lamented, “The cold blooded murder of Lasantha Wickramatunga has struck the death knell to media freedom in our country.”
It added, “If this violent trend is not arrested and the rule of law is not respected, Sri Lanka will be drawn in to an abyss of death, destruction and anarchy.”
Anglican Bishop Duleep de Chickera of Colombo said in a statement, “The assassination of Lasantha Wikramatunga, in broad daylight on a public road, has sent shock waves of anger, fear and desperation through the country. This deliberate and senseless act ... is part of a wider and worsening strategy to suppress and silence the media.”
Samuel said, “The incident led to an uproar in the country and Christians joined hands with over 10,000 protestors condemning the murder, including journalists, media groups, lawyers, and human rights organizations.”
The president of the bishops' conference in a statement said, “This trend of attacks on the media and wanton killings do not augur well for the country in any way, and it is our earnest hope that this sub-culture of violence and intimidation be arrested at the earliest.”
Samuel went on to say that Lasantha had said previously to his brother that he believed the government would try to kill him.
In paper by Lasantha, titled “And then they came for me” and published three days after the murder, the 50-year-old journalist had predicted his own death. “When finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me,” it read.
“No other profession calls on its practitioners to lay down their lives for their art save the armed forces and, in Sri Lanka, journalism. In the course of the past few years, the independent media have increasingly come under attack. Electronic and print-media institutions have been burnt, bombed, sealed and coerced. Countless journalists have been harassed, threatened and killed. It has been my honor to belong to all those categories and now especially the last,” he wrote.
Samuel went on to say, “At least 14 journalists and media workers have been killed in Sri Lanka since 2006, according to Amnesty International. Another 20 have fled overseas after death threats.
“Sri Lanka has been affected by civil war for several decades, predominantly between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a separatist armed organization that fights for the creation of an independent state named Tamil Eelam.
“Over 70,000 people have been officially listed as killed in the war since 1983.”
| Dan Wooding, 68, is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma of 45 years. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS); and US Bureau Chief for the Missionaries News Service (www.missionariesnews.tv) and Safe Worlds IPTV’s Faith, Hope and Charity channel. He was, for ten years, a commentator, on the UPI Radio Network in Washington, DC., and now hosts the weekly "Front Page Radio" show on KWVE in Southern California and which is also carried on the Calvary Radio Network throughout the United States. The program is also aired in Great Britain on UCB UK and Calvary Chapel Radio UK. Wooding is the author of some 42 books, the latest of which is his autobiography, "From Tabloid to Truth", which is published by Theatron Books. To order a copy, go to www.fromtabloidtotruth.com. E-mail: danjuma1@aol.com. |
|