Anti-Muslim Attacks Continue Despite Sri Lanka's State Of Emergency
30 April 2018
EsinIslam And Agencies
Buddhist mobs attacked mosques and businesses belonging to Sri Lanka's
minority Muslims overnight, police said Wednesday, despite the imposition of a
state of emergency to restore peace in the bitterly-divided island.
Sri Lanka on Tuesday declared a nationwide state of emergency after riots
targeting Muslims left at least two people dead and homes ablaze in a hill
station popular with tourists.
But police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekara said there had been "several incidents"
throughout Tuesday night in the Kandy area, popular with tourists for its tea
gardens.
"The police arrested seven people. Three police officers were injured from the
incidents," Gunasekara told Reuters. There was no information about how many
civilians had been injured in the attacks, he said.
An internet company official said Wednesday the government had ordered popular
social media networks blocked across a swathe of central Sri Lanka in an
attempt to stop the spread of violence.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity under company policy, said
the networks, including Facebook, Instagram, Viber and WhatsApp, were blocked
in the central hills, the scene of the violence. Outside of that region,
though, many people were also unable to access the social media sites.
The government on Tuesday said it was imposing the extraordinary measures
after police failed to curb violence in Kandy.
Heavily-armed police commandos were deployed to restore order after rioters
defied an overnight curfew and went on the rampage.
"The government is taking all possible measures to protect the people,
especially Muslims," Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told parliament.
He said an inquiry had also been opened into security lapses by police that
allowed mobs of Sinhalese rioters to burn mosques as well as homes and
businesses belonging to Muslims.
The body of a 24-year-old Muslim man was pulled out of a burnt home on
Tuesday. Police said two dozen people had been arrested in the wake of the
riots.
The emergency measures, imposed for the first time since 2011, give
authorities sweeping powers to arrest and detain suspects for long periods and
deploy forces where needed.
President Maithripala Sirisena said the measures would "redress the
unsatisfactory security situation prevailing in certain parts of the country."
"The police and armed forces have been suitably empowered to deal with
criminal elements in the society and urgently restore normalcy," he said.
City planning minister Rauff Hakeem described the riots as a "monumental
security lapse" and recommended disciplinary action against those responsible
for allowing the situation to deteriorate.
Sri Lanka's parliament Tuesday issued an apology to its Muslim minority, which
constitutes 10 percent of the country's population of 21 million.
The violence in Kandy, a serene region of verdant hills frequented by tourists
and pilgrims, has threatened to reignite communal tensions that have roiled
Sri Lanka in recent weeks.
The emergency declaration was made after a special cabinet meeting with
President Sirisena.
It is the first time in seven years Sri Lanka has resorted to such a measure.
The island nation was under a state of emergency for nearly three decades as
government forces battled Tamil rebels in a civil war that ended in 2009.
Riots erupted on Monday after a man from the island's mainly Buddhist
Sinhalese majority died at the hands of a Muslim mob last week.
Hakeem said the riots were concentrated in Kandy, but the government wanted to
send a strong message following recent outbreaks of communal violence
elsewhere in the country.
Mobs set fire to Muslim-owned businesses and attacked a mosque in the east of
the country last week after a Muslim chef was accused of adding contraceptives
to food sold to Sinhalese customers.
The government dismissed the allegation as baseless and ordered the arrest of
those fomenting unrest in the area.
Last November riots in the south of the island left one man dead and homes and
vehicles damaged.
In June 2014 riots between Buddhists and Muslims left four dead and many
injured.
That bout of violence was instigated by a Buddhist extremist group whose
leaders are on trial, accused of spurring religious conflict.
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