“A blow-by-blow commentary of the mob attack on families of disappeared” by Khana

On the 4th of August a private sharing of experiences session organized by civil society inside the Centre for Society and Religion [CSR] is disrupted by an organized gang led by what appeared to be a group of Buddhist monks.”

via: http://groundviews.org/2014/08/07/a-blow-by-blow-commentary-of-the-mob-attack-on-families-of-disappeared/

“2013 Report on International Religious Freedom – Sri Lanka” by UNHCR

The Sinhala Buddhist group Bodu Bala Sena (BBS, “Forces of Buddhist Power”) continued to promote views religious and ethnic minorities considered hostile. Local media and NGOs noted strong linkages between the BBS and the government, particularly Secretary of Defense (and brother of the president) Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who appeared prominently at public BBS events during the year. In response to pressure from this group, municipal councils began passing regulations prohibiting the slaughter of cows, a BBS demand, in their areas.

At times, local police and government officials appeared to be acting in concert with Buddhist nationalist organizations. Evangelical Christian churches, especially in the south, reported increased pressure and harassment by local government bodies to suspend worship activities or close down if they were not registered with the government, despite no legal requirement to do so. The National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka (NCEASL) stated that “dozens” of churches from all parts of the country had been questioned about their legality by local government officials and police.

via: http://www.refworld.org/docid/53d9070f14.html

“Abbott Government Must Deny Extremist Entry to Australia” by The Greens (Australia)

Greens Leader Senator Christine Milne has called on the Abbott government to deny an extremist alleged to have masterminded anti-Muslim violence in Sri Lanka entry to Australia.

Gnanasara Thero, who has been instrumental in inciting hatred against religious minorities in Sri Lanka and who is the General Secretary of the extremist Bodu Bala Sena sect, has applied for a visa and intends to tour Australia. Gnanasara Thero has reportedly been denied entry to the UK, France and the US.

via: http://greens.org.au/node/5619

“Aluthgama violence: Where was Sri Lanka’s President?” by Groundviews

The horrible killings and destruction in Aluthgama on Sunday was blacked out by almost all mainstream media in Sri Lanka at the height of the violence and the morning after. However, the violence was in detail and close to real time covered extensively over social media, leading to a documentation many times greater and more detailed than what the Government of Sri Lanka would have liked.

But where, one may ask, was Sri Lanka’s President in the middle of all this violence and what was he doing?

One may also ask, in light of very real fears over the escalation and expansion of violence, what the official response of the President of Sri Lanka was to the worst communal riots to hit the country in years?

Click here to find out.

“Aluthgama: One month after the riots” by Groundviews

Overview of coverage

Exactly one month ago, Aluthgama and Beruwela witnessed the worst anti-Muslim riots in Sri Lanka for many years. Incredibly, for days, there was no official response to the rioting from the Government of Sri Lanka, with the President out of the country getting, ironically, an award for his contributions to peace. To date, not a single official word of regret or condolence over the lives and livelihoods lost, or a single word condemning the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) from the Government, which is unsurprisingly pre-occupied with containing and censoring, if need be, the political fallout of the riots.     

From when the violence was taking place and over the past four weeks, Groundviews published security camera video footage, compelling photographs (that have been re-published in mainstream media), long-form journalism, articles, eye-witness accounts, hundreds of tweets and Facebook updates on the unrest and its social, political and economic impact. This content has flagged, inter alia, the Government’s outrageous silence, the delay in any kind of official response, the blatant falsehoods and thinly veiled racism by constituent members of government like the JHU as well as posed hard questions for the Muslims in Sri Lanka, in the aftermath of the violence.

The site has also curated a comprehensive collection of official statements around the violence on the web by domestic and international voices. 

###

“Sri Lanka’s Militant Monk Rejects Dalai Lama as Spiritual Leader” by Agence France-Presse

A firebrand Sri Lankan monk criticised the Dalai Lama for urging the island’s Buddhists to halt violence against minority Muslims and rejected him as a global spiritual leader.

http://m.ndtv.com/article/world/sri-lanka-s-militant-monk-rejects-dalai-lama-as-spiritual-leader-563019

“‘Fascists’ in saffron robes? The rise of Sri Lanka’s Buddhist ultra-nationalists” by Tim Hume

Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, executive director of Sri Lanka’s Centre for Policy Alternatives, believed the group, which he described as a purveyor of “classic hate speech,” had become emboldened by the lack of censure over the events at Aluthgama.
“Their more violent or aggressive demonstrations of power, involving even criminal acts, have gone unpunished,” he told CNN. “They seem to have a lot of support, if not protection, from within the regime itself.”

via: http://edition.cnn.com/2014/07/17/world/asia/sri-lanka-bodu-bala-sena-profile/

“Remains of the hate” by Frances Harrison

Many Sri Lankans do not recognise the extremist Bodu Bala Sena as embodying Buddhist values at all, but they are increasingly unwilling to speak out about their opposition to it—op-ed by Frances Harrison

via: http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/remains-of-the-hate/article6145815.ece

“Information on Aluthgama – Fact Finding by a Women’s Collective” by Ahilan Kadirgamar

On the 15th of June 2014 ethnic riots took place in Aluthgama following a rally organized by the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS), a Buddhist fundamentalist organization. Even though the police and state officials had been informed of the potential of the rally to turn violent, no steps were taken to stop the same, instead a large number of police and Special Task Forces (STF) personnel were deployed in the area. In the aftermath of the violence that shocked the country, a women’s team visited Aluthgama and met with several survivors with the objective of documenting the events that took place. Below is their report. Considering the safety of the survivors their names, location and other identities are not recorded.

via: http://kafila.org/2014/07/07/information-on-aluthgama-fact-finding-by-a-womens-collective/

“Aluthgama – Thinking about Co-existence and Resistance in a Time of Crisis” by Mahendran Thiruvarangan

“The government, of course, will be quite happy as long as the criticism coming from Sinhala-Buddhists does not translate into a scathing critique of the state and its nationalist project or of the government’s mismanagement of the country’s economy and the welfare system. The question before us now is how we are going to produce a criticism that penetrates into the system that serves the interests of the ruling regime in the name of all Sinhala-Buddhists. This radical criticism needs to come from all of us including the Sinhala-Buddhist community. Student leaders, educationists, workers, men, women, the clergy and activists have to lay bare the government’s deceptive politics behind its collaboration with the BBS. They need to demonstrate the ways in which Sinhala chauvinism undermines the economic strength of the people. They should expose the government’s bogus patriotic propaganda and the neo-liberal character of its economic policies that are against the interests of the poorer sections of the people of Sri Lanka. Highlighting the unevenness within the Sinhala-Buddhist community, we need to demystify the supposed homogeneity of the Sinhala-Buddhist nation.”

via: http://kafila.org/2014/06/24/aluthgama-thinking-about-co-existence-and-resistance-in-a-time-of-crisis-mahendran-thiruvarangan/

source: www.kafila.org

“The Politics of ‘Aluthgama’” by Kalana Senaratne

“Fifthly, it is necessary not to underestimate the power of the State. It is a State that has tremendous military might; a State which is powerful enough to effectively suppress any movement if it really wants to. And it has every power to do so; legally, constitutionally, militarily, judicially or in any other imaginable way. The fact that it’s not happening tells us precisely what the BBS is all about.”

via: http://groundviews.org/2014/06/22/the-politics-of-aluthgama/

“‘පිට අයයි ගැහුවේ’ අලුත්ගම සිංහල හා මුස්ලිම් වැසියෝ” by BBC

Eyewitnesses talk to the BBC about violence in Aluthgama

you can read more under the video—

Eyewitnesses talk to the BBC about violence in Aluthgama

you can read more under the video here
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sinhala/sri_lanka/2014/06/140616_aluthgama_video_villagers.shtml

source: BBC

“In Pictures: Sri Lanka hit by religious riots” by Dinouk Colombage

In two days of rioting and looting four people have been killed, including a Tamil security guard, and 80 others injured, the majority being from the Muslim community. Over 60 homes and businesses were set on fire in the two days while several mosques were also damaged.

Despite the deployment of Sri Lanka’s Special Task Force the police were unable to control the mobs who numbered in the thousands according to eyewitness reports. Eventually the military was called in to restore order.

The towns, which were once tourist attractions, are now under the blanket of a military curfew with many Muslim residents fearing to return to their homes. Sinhala Buddhist families in the area have taken to marking their homes with the Buddhist flag in an attempt to ensure they are not caught up in the attacks.

via: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/inpictures/2014/06/pictures-sri-lanka-hit-religio-2014617112053394816.html

source: www.aljazeera.com

“With You, Without You: The Reality Of Ethno-Religious Relations In Sri Lanka Today” by Nimanthi Perera-Rajasingham

A needed and insightful article in Colombo Telegraph on the recent nationalist violence against Muslims in Sri Lanka by Nimanthi Perera-Rajasingham : “At the present moment, large sections of elite and popular society in Sri Lanka refuse discussions of the truth, and so the past will, I believe, repeat itself.”

via: https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/with-you-without-you-the-reality-of-ethno-religious-relations-in-sri-lanka-today/

source: www.colombotelegraph.com

“Anti – Muslim Violence Instigated by Bodhu Bala Sena in Aluthgama and Beruwela Results in Three Deaths and Over Sixty Injuries;Muslim Owned Houses, Businesses and Mosques Torched” by D.B.S.Jeyaraj

“A curfew was clamped down in the Aluthgama and Beruwela Police divisions of Kalutara district in the Western Province of Sri Lanka following an outbreak of communal violence on Sunday June 15th 2014 that was triggered off by the “Ethno Religious Fascist” Organization the Bodhu Bala Sena (BBS).”

via: http://dbsjeyaraj.com/dbsj/archives/30652

source: http://dbsjeyaraj.com