Sri Lanka emergency: FB blocked, Buddhists torch mosques; 10 developments

The Sri Lankan govt imposed a 10-day emergency to quell the spread of communal riots on Tuesday. Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa slammed Maithripala Sirisena's United National Party for inaction

A Buddhist mob set ablaze a Muslim man's shop and attacked a Mosque in Ampara, as violence continues unabated in Sri Lanka despite an emergency. United Nations under-secretary-general Jeffery Feltman will visit Sri Lanka to take stock of the situation in the island country after the president, Maithripala Sirisena declared an emergency. He will meet religious leaders there this week, a UN spokesperson said.

Police had to fire tear gas shells at a mob in after two cops were wounded in an overnight clash in riot-hit Kandy.

Sri Lankan parliament's Chief Opposition Whip Anura Kumara Dissanayake has hit out at the government, saying that the emergency is a tactic to divert people's attention from more pressing issues and to suppress people's fight for their rights. 

However, the presidential decree hasn't been able to stop all violence as a mosque and a Muslim shop have been burnt. 

Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa rejected suggestions that the clashes could be a result of some political conspiracy and rested the blame for the situation entirely on the United National Party's (UNP) 'inaction'.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told Sri Lankan Parliament on Tuesday that elders from the Buddhist and Muslim communities had been engaged in a dialogue to prevent further violence in the Central Sri Lankan district of Kandy. According to him, certain extremist elements from outside the area had been inciting communal sentiments in what he termed as ''organised acts of sabotage''. 

The government on Tuesday imposed a 10-day emergency to quell the spread of communal riots. Several houses and shops belonging to the Muslim community had been burnt on Monday while the body of a young man had been found inside a burnt house on Tuesday.

As such, a top United Nations official is going to visit Sri Lanka to take stock of thes situation and bring all the stakeholders involved to the table. 

The Buddhist community held a protest outside a police station in Kandy against two dozen arrests made in the aftermath of the riots.

The Sri Lankan House leader Lakshman Kiriella told Parliament that state intelligence services had failed in Digana and Teldeniya, in face of the communal clashes. He said a resolution must be drafted to apologise to the Muslim community on behalf of the Buddhists, as reported by the Sri Lankan news website Daily Mirror.

Here are the top 10 highlights surrounding the emergency and the violence in Sri Lanka:

1. Internet blocked in riot-hit areas

Sri Lanka today suspended internet services and blocked access to social networking websites and messaging platforms like Whatsapp in the riot-hit central district of Kandy after police warned that rioters were using them to spread hatred against the minority Muslims.

2. State of emergency:

Following the imposition of the emergency, the police and tri-forces have been given extraordinary powers. The force can arrest anyone who creates violence or disturbs communal harmony and sentence them to 20 years of imprisonment or even life imprisonment.

3. President Sirisena's response

The Sri Lankan government has said that it would not hesitate to take strict measures in order to quell the communal tensions. President Maithripala Sirisena on Tuesday said that the countrymen are well aware of the value of peace after suffering a brutal civil war that lasted for over three decades. The civil war, that ended in 2009 with the death of LTTE chief Prabhakaran, started as a rebellion by the minority Tamil community against what they believed to be the tyrannies of the majority Sinhalese community.

4. Kandy, the epicentre of the riots:

More than two dozen arrests have been made so far, following the violence against the minority Muslim community in Kandy district which claimed two lives. Members of the Buddhist community held protests outside a police station in Kandy demanding the release of its people who were arrested in the riots.The police have said that the special security arrangements put in place in the areas will continue and the country's Special Task Force (STF) has been deployed to maintain peace.

5. Mosque, shop burnt:

At around 11:30 PM on Wednesday, hours after President Sirisena declared an emergency, a mosque and a shop were burnt down in Central Sri Lanka according to news website Al Jazeera.  A local news website called Groundview shared photos of a shattered glass door, broken chairs and an audio clip from a man who said he was inside the mosque when the attack happened.


6. How the violence started:

The latest round of violence is said to have started after a Sinhalese truck driver was injured by a group of Muslim men in a road-rage incident, according to the New York Times. The victim's death on Saturday stoked communal sentiments in Kandy as two Buddhist monks incited the residents of the area. The two monks are said to be habitual miscreants and the government is seeking their arrest as a precautionary measure against more strife. 

7. Cricket series unaffected, India lose first match to Sri Lanka:

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in the meanwhile announced that the ongoing series will go on as scheduled. The Indian cricket team's security has been beefed up by adding an extra layer of protection to the players, the Sri Lankan government is said to have told the BCCI. Top BCCI office-bearer and senior Congress politician Rajiv Shukla told news agency PTI that the neighbouring country has said that "there's nothing to worry about". 

On Tuesday, Sri Lankan beat India in the first T20 match on the back of a fiery 66-run innings by Kusal Perera off 37 balls.

8. Sri Lankan stocks take the hit:

The Sri Lankan stock market took a hit from the ongoing violence as shares closed at a three-week low amid fear among investors that the situation might get worse. Worried domestic investors are said to be waiting to see the response of their foreign counterparts before making a decision.

9. Political uncertainty in Sri Lanka:

The island country's two major political parties decided to continue in the ruling coalition last week, allaying fears of a government collapse. President Maithripala Sirisena reshuffled his cabinet last week, appointing his prime minister as the law and order minister after the governing coalition suffered a series of defeats in local polls earlier this month.

10. History of Sinhala-Muslim tensions:

Out of the island nation's 21 million population, Buddhist Sinhalese make up for nearly 75 per cent, 13 per cent are Hindus while Muslim community makes up for around 10 per cent. Tensions have been simmering between the two communities over the past four years, with some hardline Buddist groups alleging that Muslims are forcing people to convert to Islam and vandalising Buddhist archaeological sites. 

Four years back, Buddist mobs shouting anti-Muslim slogans and armed with gas bombs descended on a mosque. The riot killed four people and left 80 injured. It was followed by a protest march by a Buddhist group, Bodu Bala Sena. President Maithripala Siresena had vowed to probe the anti-Muslim riots after assuming power in 2015, but no major progress has been made as yet.

United Nations' response:

According to a Xinhua report, UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman will visit Sri Lanka this week as planned while the country is in a state of emergency. The UN representative will try to stitch a dialogue among civil society groups, religious groups and the government to help restore peace, according to a UN spokesperson.