Aiyathurai Nadesan, a prominent and veteran minority

Sri Lankan Tamil Sri Lankan Tamils ( or ), also known as Ceylon Tamils or Eelam Tamils, are Tamils native to the South Asian island state of Sri Lanka. Today, they constitute a majority in the Northern Province, form the plurality in the Eastern Province a ...

journalist was shot dead on 31 May 2004 on his way to work in eastern

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

n town of

Batticaloa Batticaloa (, ''Maṭṭakkaḷappu'', ; , ''Maḍakalapuwa'', ) is a major city in the Eastern Province, Sri Lanka, and its former capital. It is the administrative capital of the Batticaloa District. The city is the seat of the Eastern Univers ...

by gunmen belonging to an armed

paramilitary A paramilitary is a military that is not a part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. The Oxford English Dictionary traces the use of the term "paramilitary" as far back as 1934. Overview Though a paramilitary is, by definiti ...

group widely believed to be so called

Karuna Group Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP; , ), formerly known as the "Karuna Group", is a political party in Sri Lanka. It was formed by Karuna Amman (Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan), a former leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, after he de ...

Biography

Nadesan, the father of four children and aged 50 at the time of his death, hailed from

Nelliyadi Nellyadi is a small town located in the Puttur Taluk of Dakshina Kannada district, in Karnataka, India. This small town Located 275 km far from Bangalore and 70 km far from port city Mangalore Mangaluru (), formerly called ...

, a town in North

Jaffna Jaffna (, ; , ) is the capital city of the Northern Province, Sri Lanka, Northern Province of Sri Lanka. It is the administrative headquarters of the Jaffna District located on a Jaffna Peninsula, peninsula of the same name. With a population o ...

District in Sri Lanka. He wrote under the pen name Nellai Nadesan. Large crowds attended Nadesan's funeral on 3 June 2004 in his hometown. The normal life of Nelliyady, came to a standstill. Shops were closed. The hearse was taken to the Nelliyady Madhya Maha Vidiyalayam Thursday morning from his residence where funeral orations were delivered by

Tamil National Alliance The Tamil National Alliance (TNA; ISO 15919: ''tamiḻt tēciyakkūṭṭamaippu'') was a political alliance in Sri Lanka which represented the Sri Lankan Tamil minority of the country. It was formed in October 2001 by a group of moderate T ...

parliamentarians,

LTTE The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE; , ; also known as the Tamil Tigers) was a Tamil militant organization, that was based in the northern and eastern Sri Lanka. The LTTE fought to create an independent Tamil state called Tamil Eelam ...

activists and Sunanda Deshapriya of the

Free Media Movement The Free Media Movement (FMM) is a media freedom watchdog organization of journalists from Sri Lanka. It evolved out of the standing committee of journalists, which was formed in late 1991. The standing committee was formed by a group of journalist ...

. A protest demonstration was held in

Colombo Colombo, ( ; , ; , ), is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. The Colombo metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of 5.6 million, and 752,993 within the municipal limits. It is the ...

on 9 June 2004, condemning Nadesan's killing, and a one-day shutdown was observed in the town of

Trincomalee Trincomalee (; , ; , ), historically known as Gokanna and Gokarna, is the administrative headquarters of the Trincomalee District and major resort port city of Eastern Province, Sri Lanka, Eastern Province, Sri Lanka. Located on the east coast o ...

. Police have yet to make any arrests in his death.Journalists' murders still unpunished
-

IFEX Ifosfamide, sold under the brand name Ifex among others, is a chemotherapy medication used to treat a number of types of cancer. This includes testicular cancer, soft tissue sarcoma, osteosarcoma, bladder cancer, small cell lung cancer, cervic ...

Career

He was the vice-president of the Sri Lanka Tamil Media Alliance and a recipient of the Best

Journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

of 2000 Prize awarded by the Sri Lanka Editors' Guild. He was the

based columnist for

Virakesari ''Virakesari'' is one of the leading Tamil daily newspapers in Sri Lanka. It is the oldest and the largest circulated Tamil Newspaper in Sri Lanka. Virakesari is owned by Express Newspapers (Ceylon) (Private) Limited, a leading print and we ...

, the country's leading

Tamil language Tamil (, , , also written as ''Tamizhil'' according to linguistic pronunciation) is a Dravidian language natively spoken by the Tamil people of South Asia. It is one of the longest-surviving classical languages in the world,. "Tamil is one of ...

newspaper, for more than twenty years. And also he was the local correspondent for

Shakthi TV Shakthi TV () is the first Tamil television service of Sri Lanka. It is the number one Tamil station in Sri Lanka. This general entertainment channel broadcasts serials, films, sports, current affairs, news and children's programs. It mainly airs ...

News and the

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

based International Broadcasting Corporation. For being a prominent member of the local press, Nadesan received the prize for the best Tamil journalist in 2000.

Past incidents of intimidation

*On 3 April 2000 a bomb exploded at his home in Batticaloa. The

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression reported to the

UN Commission on Human Rights The United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) was a functional commission within the overall framework of the United Nations from 1946 until it was replaced by the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2006. It was a subsidiary body of th ...

in February 2002. The report said;

References

External links

Amnesty International report on Nadesan's death
*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nadesan, Aiyathurai Year of birth missing 2004 deaths Deaths by firearm in Sri Lanka Assassinated Sri Lankan journalists Sri Lankan Tamil people Sri Lankan journalists 21st-century Sri Lankan writers 21st-century journalists Sri Lankan Hindus People murdered in Sri Lanka

Biography

Career

Past incidents of intimidation

See also

References

External links