On March 6th E-Kwality printing press Owner and journalist V.Jasikaran was arrested in Colombo. His wife Valarmathi, was also arrested. Following these arrests 4 other journalists were also arrested by the Srilankan Government the same week. Mr. Jasikaran is a liaison volunteer working for the Network uthawi (http://www.uthawi.net/).

uthawi is a non-political, non-religious, non-partisan network supporting orphanages in Sri Lanka based in Germany. uthawi has been supporting four orphanages in East Sri Lankan since 2003 and Mr. Jasikaran has been an integral part of this very important work.

The Sri Lankan authorities have also physically abused all the arrested journalists during the first week of their arrest.
The imprisonment of these journalists has also hampered the functioning of the orphanages. The orphanages are facing acute shortage of money. And thus more than 250 orphans are suffering in these orphanages located in Eastern Sri Lanka.
More information about the arrests can be found in BBC, CPJ and Reporters without borders websites
    http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=26200
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7293303.stm
    http://www.cpj.org/news/2008/asia/sri11mar08na.html

We are gravely concerned about the arrest and false accusation of Mr. Jasikaran, his wife Mrs. Valarmathi.
We are also gravely concerned about the situation of the children in the 4 orphanages for which Mr. Jasikaran acted as a liaisons volunteer. We urge the Sri Lankan government to make sure that money and aid can reach the orphans immediately.

We also want the authorities to stop the physical abuse of the journalists and to release them immediately.

We urge the Sri Lankan Government to conduct a proper investigation on this issue without any discrimination.

uthawi would like to request humanitarian organizations and human rights organizations to get involved. And thus help release the journalists and help food and aid reach the poor orphans in the orphanages supported by us.

More Information about the orphanages we support or about uthawi can be found in our website http://www.uthawi.net

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