Sectarian violence has resurfaced in Sri Lanka again with the hard-line Buddhist Sinhala groups like Bodu Bala Sena (The Buddhist Power Force, or BBS) targeting the Muslim minority in the southern coastal towns of Aluthgama and Beruwela.
At least three Muslims were killed and seventy-five others injured on June 14-15, when BBS went on a rampage. The men died of gunshot wounds near a mosque in Aluthgama in what is said to be Sri Lanka’s worst outbreak of sectarian violence in years.
These incidents indicate that the popularity of the BBS may be on the rise, along with the potential for further conflict.
Muslims in Sri Lanka constitute ten per cent of the population but the BBS accused them of wielding more political and economic influence than that is justified.
Tension between the two communities is neither new nor sudden. It has been simmering for a long while and present sectarian strife can be traced to January 2013 when Buddhist mob attacked a mosque in the capital Colombo itself.
As several commentators have said, the very real danger facing President Rajapaksa government is descent of Sri Lanka into ethnic-fuelled violence, like in Myanmar where the stateless Rohingya Muslims are at the receiving end of local Buddhist ire. Since 2012, hundreds have been killed in the Arakans and more than 100,000 people have been displaced, some of them taking shelter in neighbouring Bangladesh.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa has ordered an investigation into the Aluthgama- Beruwela carnage.
“The government will not allow anyone to take the law into their own hands. I urge all parties concerned to act in restraint," he tweeted.
He cannot afford to ignore the hardline Buddhist, groups and their activities since one of his closest allies, and partner in the government is Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC)
As of now, the SLMC leadership is upset and it is not hiding its disappointment. “I just can’t understand a government which prevents even a trade union or student protesters going to protest marches … allowing the BBS to conduct the meeting (that ignited clashes)”, Rauf Hakeem, SLMC leader and Minister for Justice, said.
With a sense of hurt, he added Muslims in the area had repeatedly requested authorities to provide them with security.
The government cannot deny that there were no warning signals. One day before the clashes, the BBS general secretary, Galagoda Aththe Gnanasaara, had held out a warning to the Muslims saying “We still have Sinhala police in this country; still we have a Sinhala military. From today, if any Muslim… mishandles any Sinhalese that will be the end of them”. He sounded the warning at a public rally that went viral on YouTube.
He has since disowned these remarks, and said the BBS had not been involved in the clashes. He blamed the clashes on “an extreme Muslim group" that had picked a fight with the Sinhalese.
The fact of the matter is that these ethnic and religious tensions are bad news to Sri Lanka since the UNHRC has launched an investigation into “war crimes” that took place during the closing phase of the war against LTTE in 2009.
These clashes which forced the government to impose curfew on the two southern towns to cool tempers expose the government to the charge of inaction against the BBS and its ilk.
— By RAM SINGH KALCHURI
