Richard de Zoysa - 20th death anniversary:
A voice for the voiceless
Wijitha NAKKAWITA
Today is the twentieth death anniversary of Richard de Zoysa who was abducted, tortured and shot dead by a uniformed goon squad of the then UNP Government led by President R. Premadasa.
Richard was whisked away from the home of Dr Manoranee Saravanamuttu, at Welikadawatta, Rajagiriya in the middle of the night and his remains with tell-tale marks of torture, a broken jaw, burn marks, shot in the neck and head, was found on the beach near Moratuwa the next day.
Richard de Zoysa
The UNP who are espousing or championing human rights and the JVP who are pretending to be advocates of non-violent politics today were both killers at that time.
Richard, an eminent journalist, actor, broadcaster along with his friend Lakshman Perera were going to produce a play, Me Kavuda, Monavada Karanne a skit on the powers that be at the time. Today these pseudo patrons of human rights and democracy cannot get behind their past nor can they escape the judgment of history.
Richard was murdered and Lakshman Perera disappeared and was never heard of again. As a human being Richard had a very large heart. He would go out of his way to help people who needed help. For him there was no social distinctions of rich or poor, high or common. His hand was always stretched out in friendship.
Often he came to see us on his trail motorbike. Always with some humorous remark and his smile. Later he would be riding away to various places out of Colombo to meet one or another of his wide circle of friends or acquaintances.
The day he was abducted from his mother’s home she had identified a senior Police officer who had served Premadasa’s Security Unit. Though she had informed the Police about it and a prominent politician of the Government had known it the murder case did not come to a conclusive end.
As late as 2005 after long postponement with the usual law’s delays, the case ended with the observation that the evidence led before court was contradictory and all the accused were acquitted.
Prior to Richard’s killing he received a letter of appointment promoting him as Inter Press Service Bureau Chief in Rome. But he had loved the country and the people so well he had been telling his friends that he did not wish to leave the country. Ominous as it was Richard did not imagine that he would meet such a fate.
His writing was on the fate of voiceless unknown people. He stood up for these people and he wrote of the fate of the helpless people during the spate of killings going on under the autocratic regimes, various para military groups that had killed at least 60,000 people from 1988 to 1990.
He often met the then Opposition member of Parliament Mahinda Rajapaksa
who was the only politician leading the agitation and struggle against the appalling violation of human rights and kangaroo court killings of the JVP killers and extra judicial killings of the UNP Premadasa regime. His death highlighted the unabated killings.
Then Opposition member present President Mahinda Rajapaksa organised a mass movement opposed to the killings with his Padha Yathra march from Colombo to Kataragama.
Next he organised the Mothers Front where Richard’s mother Dr Manoranee Saravanamuttu also played an important role. Finally when Premadasa was killed allegedly by an LTTE suicide bomber Babu who was in the Premadasa’s personal staff, the killing spree ended.
However there still are some elements in the UNP and the JVP who were either hand in glove with the para military killers or the kangaroo court judges and hit men posing off as champions of democracy. But they will never usher in the world that Richard dreamed about.
dailynews.lk
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