Culprit: Sense of impunity A racial riot taken as a political football

When the Amnesty International (AI), the London-b ased Non-Governmental Organization working on human rights issues around the world listed Sri Lanka among countries unsafe for Muslims in its latest report titled ‘The State of the World’s Human Rights report for 2017 to 2018’ a fortnight ago, at least the Muslims in Sri Lanka did not believe it.

They did not take it seriously in spite of their mosques, business establishments and homes having been attacked in the past by mobs occasionally in various parts of the country, as those incidents had been usually confined only to certain localities, before normalcy was brought back, along with allegations of official lethargy in quelling them.

It was so lightly taken that it did not attract the attention of majority of Muslims in the country and even those who read the report or heard about it forgot it in days, if not hours, as the country had not been such a horrendous place for Muslims. But the Muslims in the country had to wake up to the horrific warning of the AI when violence flared up against their fellowmen in many places in the Kandy District after a relatively small incident in Ampara.

The attacks in Kandy were so serious that the Government had to impose dusk- to- dawn Police curfew within the entire Kandy District since Monday and a state of emergency around the country for a week from Tuesday, a situation seen for the first time since 1915 purely due to Sinhala- Muslim riots.

The rioters seem to have some understanding that neither the state of emergency nor the curfew would stop them from running amok or they would have to face the repercussions of violations of the law.

The curfew had to be extended in the daytime as well for a few hours depending on the situation.
One has to be alarmed with the fact that the attacks against Muslims went on unabated even during the emergency and the curfew.

Sri Lankans, especially those over 20 years of age, are not strangers to the state of emergency or curfew and they are well aware of the consequences of defying them, as the country had been under a state of emergency from March 16, 1971 to August 25, 2011, except for a few months’ long intervals in between.

They adhered not only to the Government’s state of emergency and the curfew but also to those imposed by the JVP during their two insurrections and the LTTE during its heyday.

One might recall people did not dare to throw their garbage on the roads when the Urban Development Authority was under former Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.

Here, the rioters seem to have some understanding that neither the state of emergency nor the curfew would stop them from running amok or they would have to face the repercussions of violations of the law. In fact the large majority of those caught on camera running riot are still at large, except for a few who had been arrested and remanded.

Minister Champika Ranawaka, who would have been swift to take a side had these incidents taken place some years ago, had said that incidents had spread due to the inaction on the part of the Police.
Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa told on Wednesday that the only thing the Government had to do to quell the riots was to just implement the law of the land. Parliamentarian Jayampathy Wickramaratne, a close ally of the leaders of the Government said that there were clear and credible reports that the Police had been onlookers to the riots. He questioned as to what the use of the state of emergency is, if it is not implemented.

Government Analyst A. Weliangage had ruled that the suspected particles in the food served at the Ampara eatery were nothing but clumps of flour 

While Minister Lakshman Kiriella was blaming the State intelligence officers for not anticipating riots after the death of the youth who had been assaulted by a group of drunken Muslim men, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe also had accepted the lapses on the part of the Police.
The Law and Order Ministry which was under the Premier until Thursday from February 25 had also reportedly directed the Batticaloa DIG to probe into an incident where an alleged flawed B Report had been submitted to the courts after the ugly incidents in Ampara.

It is said that the Police who initially framed the charges against the Ampara rioters under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) Act, which does not provide for the suspects to be granted bail by a Magistrate, had charged them under a different law later.
However, after so many such allegations against the Police, the main body responsible for law and order has not so far issued any official statement absolving itself.

The very attacks in Ampara point to the fact that the whole episode had been premeditated. A man finds something unusual in the food served to him at a Muslim eatery and he hurriedly concludes that it was some sort of male contraceptive and nothing else.

And he was able to muster a group of people in that late night to believe his contraceptive story and rush to the eatery to question the cashier of the small hotel. The frightened man mumbles something that resembles him admitting the allegation whereupon the Muslim businesses and a mosque in the vicinity were attacked, while his muttering was videoed and hurriedly spread all over through social media.

Now, that Government Analyst A. Weliangage had ruled that the suspected particles in the food served at the Ampara eatery were nothing but clumps of flour, how can one explain the admission of the cashier that he mixed sterilizing chemicals in the food at his eatery?

A notable difference between the latest anti-Muslim riots and those took place some three years ago was the courage demonstrated both by the leaders of the Sinhalese and Muslim communities.
The prominent Sinhalese leaders this time had dared to swiftly dismiss the Wandapethi  (Sterilization tablet) canard and condemn the riots while the Muslim leaders and the social media run by Muslims were swift, open and univocal in condemning the assault on the Sinhalese youth, who succumbed later to the injuries, the incident that triggered the calamity in Kandy District.

It is ironic that the Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) that tied up once even a malaria infected Indian man with the proposed ETCA has been maintaining a deafening silence on the matter.

Unlike during the Halal controversy when the authorities allowed the spread of hatred to prolong for three years unnecessarily, culminating in the Aluthgama mayhem, the authorities this time were prudent enough to get the versions of the Government Analyst and the Director General of Health Services on the alleged infertility tablet within a week.

However, it is ironic that the Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) that tied up once even malaria infected Indian man with the proposed ETCA, has been maintaining a deafening silence on the matter.

There seems to be a consensus among the politicians that the riots were not spontaneous, but organized, owing to the pattern of the incidents.

However, the pathetic side of the story is the politicians using the tragic situation to attack the opponents and to open old wounds, without collectively bring in communal harmony in the country.
Minister Rajitha Senaratne said on Wednesday that the authorities had identified four persons, including a Police officer, a monk and a local politician, who had been behind the anti-Muslim attacks and his interpretation was that this was a move to pit the Muslims who would be a decisive factor at the next Presidential election against the candidate of the ruling parties. President Maithripala Sirisena had stated that these incidents had been planned to embarrass the Government at the current UNHRC sessions in Geneva.

Joint Opposition MP Dullas Alahapperuma says that the Government which was rejected by the people at the recent LG elections wanted now blood, riots and dead bodies to come out of the mess they are currently in.

Pivithuru Hela Urumaya leader Udaya Gammanpila argues that the Prime Minister, who faces a No-Confidence Motion was out of the woods now due to the tense situation and it indicated what 
is going on.

SLMC Parliamentarian and Deputy Minister M.H.M. Harees says they would vote against the Prime Minister at the vote on the No-Confidence Motion if he did not take action against anti-Muslim rioters, while the TNA attempts to take advantage of the situation with TELO Parliamentarian Govindan Karunakaram claiming that it is only in the merged North and the East that the Muslims can 
live peacefully.

TNA Parliamentarian S. Viyalenthiran had tried to open up an old wound by saying there is a history where some people served milk rice and hoisted the national flag when the Tamils were killed at the last phase of the war.

With such a psyche of the politicians, it is easy for the conspirators to flare up the communal fire.