Grenade attack on Lanka daily

COLOMBO, AUG 22: Uthayan means dawn, and the newspaper, which began 14 years ago during the height of Tamil militancy, was so named in th...

COLOMBO, AUG 22: Uthayan means dawn, and the newspaper, which began 14 years ago during the height of Tamil militancy, was so named in the hope there would one day be a new dawn over Jaffna peninsula.

Yesterday night, the office of Uthayan, now the only newspaper to be published from the still embattled peninsula, was damaged in a grenade attack.

Two grenades were lobbed in by unseen hands into a part of the office compound where the printing press is housed. A watchman was injured and two vehicles ruined in the attack. We think they were aiming at the machines. Whoever it was thought they could intimidate us with their arms and guns,8217; said V Kanmayilnathan, editor of the Tamil daily.

Just the day before, Uthayan8216;s sister weekly Sanjeevi, ran a story about the extortionist practices of a former militant Tamil group which now holds some seats in the peninsula8217;s local government. According to Kanamayilnathan, the attack may be linked to the report.

But it was business as usual atthe Uthayan today. The paper came out today and it will be coming out everyday,8217; the editor said.

Ever since the army took control of Jaffna peninsula in 1996, the Uthayan has walked the tightrope between the military, the LTTE and various ex-militant groups who returned under the patronage of the Sri Lankan Government to resume political activity in the region. When the paper published something from the LTTE, the Army did not like it, and vice versa. Several times, the publisher had to make trips either to the army headquarters, or to rendezvous with the LTTE in the still uncleared8217; areas on the boundaries of Jaffna town, to provide clarifications8217; on stories.

They may have their own interests in mind, but our job is to inform, so we publish news from military, government, ex-militant groups, Voice of Tigers, from all sources. We are not biased against anybody,8217; said Kanamayilnathan.

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Uthayan, in fact, has been Jaffna8217;s biggest survivor. Its one-time rival, Eeelanadu,established in 1958, still comes out, but is now fully controlled by the LTTE, published and circulated only in the Vanni and has been reduced to a weekly from a once flourishing daily due to newsprint and ink shortages in the Tiger-controlled areas.