UNP calls for intl. probe on Lasantha’s killing The UNP on Friday called for an international investigation into the assassination of The Sunday Leader Editor-in-Chief Lasantha Wickrematunge. The party staged a protest in parliament on Friday with several of its MPs sitting in the well of the house in front of the Speaker’s chair, with red and black shawls draped around their necks, holding placards and accusing the government of murdering Wickrematunge. UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe gagged his mouth with a red scarf whilst in the parliament chamber to symbolise the stifling of media freedom, and in a speech he warned of dangers to the country’s moral fabric if murders such as that of The Sunday Leader Editor were allowed to go unpunished. Kurunegala District MP Dayasiri Jayasekera raised a point of Parliamentary Privilege on Friday, stating that he had received a telephone death threat from a caller threatening to deliver him the same fate as Lasantha Wickrematunge. "He said I was too outspoken against the government, both in and out of parliament," Jayasekera told the house. The government did not formally respond to the concerns raised by the UNP, however Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage led a chorus of government members taunting the UNP to take steps to protect its leader from becoming the next target of attack.
Monday, January 12, 2009
UNP calls for intl. probe on Lasantha’s
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