(Message of Public Concerns by, Professor Nishan C Wijesinha).

Richard de Zoysa’s murder is widely believed to have been carried out by a special intelligence death squad that was formed under the President Ranasinghe Premadasa government to crush the insurrection launched by the Militant “Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) organization”.

On 18 February 1990 Richard de Zoysa, a 31 year old journalist, was abducted from his home near Colombo in the early hours of the morning by a group of men. His body was found in the sea on 19 February. He had been shot.

A magisterial inquiry into the murder was instituted shortly afterwards; about three-and-a-half months later by Mr de Zoysa’s mother, Dr Manorani Saravanamuttu, who had been present at the abduction, claimed to have identified one of the abductors as Senior Superintendent of Police Ronnie Gunasinghe; when watching a television news broadcast on which he had appeared.

The authorities declined  an order to arrest Mr Gunasinghe. 

Public concerns about the murder is still a growing factor unsolved to this date because; “Justice delayed is justice denied”.