Sri Lankan Newspaper Editor Arrested and Accused of Aiding Rebel Air Attack

Sri Lankan police arrested the editor of a Tamil-language newspaper during a funeral today, accusing him of aiding a rebel air attack on the capital last week.

The arrest of Nadesapillai Vithyatharan came as the government faced growing criticism from opposition officials and media activists over a recent spate of attacks on journalists critical of the offensive against the Tamil Tiger separatists.

Last month, a prominent newspaper editor critical of the war was killed by gunmen, a private TV station was attacked by assailants armed with guns and grenades, and another editor was stabbed. The government denies any role in the attacks.

Vithyatharan, editor of the reputedly pro-rebel Sudar Oli newspaper, was attending a funeral near Colombo when three uniformed police officers drove up in a van, pulled him from a crowd of mourners and drove away, said E Saravanapavan, the managing director of the newspaper.

"We were trying to push him inside and they were trying to drag him the other way," he said.

Lakshman Hulugalle, a defence spokesman, said Vithyatharan was being held in connection with the rebels' kamikaze attack on Colombo last Friday, but that it was too soon to know if he would be charged. He defended the conditions of the arrest.

"There was nothing harsh in the arrest because he's a wanted person," he said.

Saravanapavan said the arrest came a day after police visited the newspaper's offices and demanded everyone's name and address. They did not explain the reason for the demand, he said.

Reporters Without Borders demanded Vithyatharan's immediate release.

"What is this respected Tamil editor accused of? Outspoken coverage of the situation in Sri Lanka, including the fate of its Tamil population," the group said in a statement.

Meanwhile, army troops and the Tamil Tigers fought fierce battles in Puthukkudiyiruppu, the last rebel-held town, the military said.

The military has driven the rebels out of much of the de facto state they controlled across the north and boxed them into a tiny strip of land along the north-eastern coast. If Puthukkudiyiruppu falls, the rebels will be confined to a few villages and jungle areas, along with tens of thousands of civilians still trapped in the war zone.

In a speech today, the Sri Lankan president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, accused the rebels of increasing their forcible recruitment of children as they grow more desperate in the face of the military onslaught.

The rebels have been fighting since 1983 for an independent state for minority Tamils after decades of marginalisation by governments dominated by the Sinhalese majority. More than 70,000 people have been killed in the fighting.