COLOMBO: A state of emergency has been declared in Sri Lanka for 10 days on Tuesday to stop the spread of communal violence, a government spokesman said, after clashes erupted between majority Buddhists and members of the minority Muslim community in Kandy administrative district.
Tension has been growing between the two communities over the past year, with some hard line Buddhist groups accusing Muslims of forcing people to convert to Islam and vandalizing Buddhist archaeological sites.
Some Buddhist nationalists have also protested against the presence in Sri Lanka of Muslim Rohingya asylum-seekers from mostly Buddhist Myanmar, where Buddhist nationalism has also been on the rise. “At a special cabinet meeting, it was decided to declare a state of emergency for 10 days to prevent the spread of communal riots,” government spokesman Dayasiri Jayasekara said.
He said some people were instigating violence through Facebook and warned of tough action against them. The unrest in the Indian Ocean island’s central district of Kandy began on Sunday after the funeral of a truck driver from the majority Sinhalese Buddhist community who died days after he was involved in an altercation with four Muslims, the government has said.
It was not clear why the initial altercation occurred but after the driver’s funeral on Monday, a Sinhalese mob attacked Muslim shops, police said. The body of a Muslim youth was found in a burnt-out house early on Tuesday, police said. Muslims make up about 9 per cent of Sri Lanka’s 21 million people. Buddhists make up about 70 per cent and ethnic Tamils, most of whom are Hindus, about 13 per cent. The government sent troops and elite police to the area and imposed a curfew. A curfew was reimposed in two districts of Kandy on Tuesday, police said.
Violence condemned
The Government strongly condemned the recent incident of violence that had sparked off in Ampara and Digana, creating communal disharmony, where some places of worship, residences and businesses have been damaged. The Government urged people to desist from falling prey to hate and misinformation campaigns. As a country that had suffered by acts of violence for nearly three decades, we as a nation should desist from the repetition of such, the government said.
