Thank you.
So this weekend it will be exactly two years to the date
since I was forced to flee Sri Lanka and settle in the United States.
Two years ago, in October 2012, on the 25th of October
we left in the dead of night actually, Columbo
I left with my two sons, my elder son and my younger son
my elder son was 20 at the time and my younger was just 6.
And we arrived in Seattle, shivering and uncertain of what our future held, but there was no turning back.
It was just a case of moving forward.
To start with, I'm going to first, since I have been asked many times in America
where Sri Lanka is, I figured I should start off by telling you.
It's an island nation in the Indian Ocean.
It is not a part of India, it's a separate country.
Very beautiful, known for its rich historical heritage, 2,600 year old cultural heritage.
Beautiful beaches, fabulous wild life. And that's the tourist blurb on Sri Lanka.
It is indeed a beautiful country, but the reality of what actually happens
in that country stops with its geographical beauty.
It has been rated by the Committee to Protect Journalists
as the fourth most dangerous country for journalists to practice their profession in.
Under the current regime led by president Mahinda Rajapaksa nine journalists have been murdered.
None of the perpetrators have been brought to justice or found.
Among those nine journalists was Lasantha Wickrematunge
my predecessor, editor in chief and founder editor of the Sunday Leader.
Lasantha was ambushed and killed on his way to work in January in 2009.
It followed years of intimidation, persecution and harassment.
The paper, the Sunday leader was founded in 1994.
Lasantha was beaten up, his house has been shot at
he and I both have been man-handled, dragged in and out of courts over a period of years.
All politically motivated cases.
As the newspaper continued
we built up a reputation not only locally but internationally for our investigative journalism.
But the paper paid a huge price, we were attacked nine times.
Our presses were burnt twice.
And ultimately we paid, or rather the newspaper paid
the ultimate price when Lasantha was murdered in January 2009.
Together with Lasantha I have had to watch I mean, many of my colleagues beaten up or killed.
Over here in the center is Keith Noyahr, another editor
associate editor, of another newspaper but a journalistic colleague
who was brutally beaten up by a government goon squad.
Keith has also relocated to a foreign country since, with his young family.
This is the day I stood by helplessly and watched Lasantha die together with some family members
and almost the entire staff of the Sunday Leader.
I took over from Lasantha on March 1, 2009.
It certainly wasn't easy stepping into the shoes of a dead man, or a man who had been murdered.
Soon after I took over I received a death threat
it was written in red ink and it came in the vernacular, in Sinhalese.
It said "Bitch we will chop you up if you don't stop writing."
Lasantha received a similar death threat in the same writing, three weeks before he was murdered.
But you know as I said, we believed in what we were doing
we believed that we were making a difference in Sri Lanka
and that we were changing the way people thought by exposing official corruption.
This man is Gotabaya Rajapaksa, defense secretary in Sri Lanka, he is still defense secretary
and he is the younger brother of the president Mahinda Rajapaksa.
Lasantha in fact published a series of articles about corruption involving Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
So much so that Rajapaksa went to court and actually got a court order, which banned the newspaper
from naming him in any future articles.
This happened a couple of months before Lasantha was murdered.
After I took over I suddenly had a run in with this man.
So in July 2012 I telephoned him for a comment.
It was involving a story that he was trying to fly a puppy dog down from Switzerland for his wife.
And in doing so, they were actually changing planes.
Sri Lankan airlines international, two flights, they were going to change it from a wider-bodied A340
to small A330 or something like that, to accommodate a pilot friend
who would fly the smaller bodied plane to Switzerland and bring down this puppy dog for Rajapaksa's wife.
And as a result, 59 passengers were going to be offloaded.
And I just called him for a comment. He just went berzerk.
And he screamed at me repeatedly "You are a fucking pig who eats shit."
I apologize for the language but this is what he said.
And as I, I remember holding my phone in my hand, absolutely shocked
and I kept telling him I said, "You know Mr. Rajapaksa I wish you can hear yourself."
And then he told me, he said, "if you and were at the same function together
and I were to point you out as the editor of the Sunday Leader
90% of the people there would want to see you dead."
So of course I ran the story and I published the entire conversation.
He went a step further because the following week he was of course interviewed
by all the newspapers in the country including international news agencies.
And he said, "What's the big deal?" when he was asked whether he had used such language on me.
He said, "What's the big deal?" because oh by the way
I forgot to mention so the man ironically is an American citizen.
And he said, "This is the way Americans speak."
I have lived two years in the U.S now and I can vouch for the fact that Americans do not speak the way
Mr. Rajapaksa speaks and behaves.
Anyway, the government moved fast.
I mean, they don't take mud being thrown in their face lightly.
And the public shame and ridicule he faced as a fall-out of that story.
They convinced a close ally to buy out the newspaper on the basis on the condition that I would
be sacked with immediate effect and that is exactly what happened.
Within a week of the takeover, which happened two months later, I was sacked.
But it didn't stop there.
The newspaper then published an apology to Mr. Rajapaksa for that story. And I started being followed.
It's not the first time I had been followed, but nevertheless
followed home by unidentified men on motor bikes.
I got a threatening phone call, where this man just screamed at me, you know basically saying
why did I take Gotabaya Rajapaksa on, that he is a war hero, etc. etc
And I was then told by my lawyers that he brought a fresh lawsuit against me.
I was told by my lawyers that my passport was going to be impounded
and that I was definitely going to go to jail.
And so I figured that it was time that I stop playing heroine, and be a mom, I had two sons.
In 2009, I'm going back here a little bit.
In 2009 I had broken another story involving the army commander and Mr. Rajapaksa.
The army chief accused him of having committed serious war crimes.
We ran the story, that was a huge controversy, and again I received numerous death threats.
But, in the midst of all this, I got a phone call from the U.S. ambassador
she had just taken over she was new to the country
and she invited me for tea at her official residence.
It wasn't unusual for editors to meet with an ambassador on a one to one basis like that.
And I went to her residence.
I was astounded that over a cup of tea she told me that she believed my life was seriously under threat
and she asked me to bring my passport and the passports of my two children to the U.S. embassy.
And she stamped our passports with multiple entry visas to the U.S. that were valid until 2015.
At the time I told a couple of close confidants I would never use those visas.
I was proud to be Sri Lankan, I was determined to hold on to my Sri Lankan passport
and I was determined never to leave.
But in 2012, when I had this run in with Gotabaya Rajapaksa
she actually was one of the first people to call me
I still remember that phone call that Sunday when the story broke.
And her exact words to me were, she said, "Babe, this time you've gone too far."
And she said "You know you have those visas and we are just a phone call away."
I was still determined that I wasn't going to leave.
But, as I said, once I was removed, I was facing jail time, and it appeared to be no option.
So we left, like I said, in the dead of night.
We were afraid that I would be stopped by Sri Lankan immigration.
We arrived in Seattle, I arrived in Seattle with a very angry 20-year old who did not want to leave his country.
That has been the fallout of relocating, apart from us having lost everything
the home that we loved, the people that we knew, my family has been split into three.
And it has certainly not been easy starting all over again, it's been a case of starting from scratch.
I have had to re-invent myself in America.
I went back to school, the last one and a half years I've been in school
and I'm studying for my bachelors in finance and interior design.
And three months ago I got hired as an interior designer, full-time, by a leading furnishing house in Seattle.
I must say I enjoy my job, but the situation in Sri Lanka continues.
This picture shows, this is another well-known journalist, he is a former editor
Jayasiri Jayasekara, who just this month was very seriously threatened with death in Sri Lanka.
His whole family in fact, had been threatened with death.
And here you see pictures of human rights activists again
condemning the threatening of a lawyer, these two lawyers
Namal Rajapaksa and Manjula Pathiraja, also this month.
So the situation just gets worse. It's a tyrannical regime.
A dictatorship where they function with impunity
and there is little or no accountability.
As for me, like I said, it's about starting all over.
I know that there are many Sri Lankans who have told me, "You're lucky to get out, you're privileged in America
to have had the opportunity to go to the U.S. and start life of fresh."
I am lucky, I am lucky to be alive.
I know that and I am grateful, America has been good to us.
But that's it.
I mean, I know that there are some of you out there in the audience who have also had to relocate
flee your countries, leave everything behind like I had to
and I know that you will understand when I say that the reality is a nightmare, it's a living hell.
Thank you.