At about 5.30 a.m., police charged the unarmed protestors—men, women and children—hitting them with batons and rifle butts. Villagers fleeing the scene were chased to and attacked in their homes. Those seeking protection in a nearby Buddhist temple were assaulted and part of the building damaged. Some women carrying children were beaten.
Eye witnesses said that nearly 15 people received injuries and some were seriously hurt. All ran away for safety. Some went to the temple, thinking they were safe there, but the police entered the temple and attacked them. A mother was seen running with a baby in her arms to avoid the teargas.
Arrested protesters were taken to Homagama, Padukka and Hanwella police stations and the assault continued throughout Sunday. Angry villagers chopped down trees and blocked the nearby Colombo-Awissawella highway for almost three hours.
The government then deployed heavily-armed security personnel, who sealed off the whole area and began using water cannon and teargas. A police officer was injured during the clashes and later died in hospital.
Police spokesman Ajith Rohana told the media that the Colombo Criminal Investigation Department was checking whether the police officer’s death was “a premeditated act of violence.”
He claimed that the demonstration was a “sudden, disruptive and provocative act … incited by a specially organised group or groups who want to disgrace the nation’s government and the police internationally.”
Last weekend’s demonstration began after the Magistrate’s Court in Awissawella ruled in the factory’s favour last Friday. Two weeks ago the court gave HRP management 14 days to explain why the plant should not be shut. Instead of ordering the plant closure, as expected by thousands of villagers, the court over-ruled its own deadline on Friday, and gave HRP more time to reply.
Last August also, the government mobilised armed police against Rathupaswala villagers protesting in Weliweriya against the pollution of local water supplies by the Venigros Dipped Products factory. Three youth were killed and several seriously injured in the attack. Like the HRP factory, Venigros produces rubber gloves.
While the Venigros factory was closed due to mass local opposition, no official report on the water contamination has been made public. In addition, the government offered Dipped Products the option of relocating to the Biyagama special economic zone, without any known provision for preventing pollution.
Writing under the heading “Disaster waiting to happen,” English daily, The Island, took the government to task. The edit declared: “The government blundered by dragging its feet on the Rathupaswala water issue and being seen to be partial to the factory, blamed rightly or wrongly for pollution, much to the consternation of the affected people. It is apparently making the same mistake in Hanwella.”
The availability of unpolluted water and other rudimentary health and safety standards are the first casualties in the drive to make Sri Lanka an “internationally competitive” destination for corporate investment, say government critics. The police attack on protestors against water pollution gives some justification to their criticism.
