Sri Lankan editor row escalates
[BBC]
The Sri Lankan government has accused the opposition of trying to gain political advantage from last week’s murder of a prominent newspaper editor. Engineering Services Minister Rajitha Senaratne said he did not know who had killed Lasantha Wickramatunga but it was the opposition that had benefited. The Sunday Leader editor was one of the government’s leading critics. He was shot in the head by unknown killers. A piece by him published by his paper after his death blames the government. The editorial, entitled And Then They Came For Me, in which Mr Wickramatunga predicted his own murder, says: “When finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me.”