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’Feminist Collective’ condemns attack on peaceful protestors in Mannar
Colombo, Sept. 30 (Daily Mirror) - The Feminist Collective for Economic Justice, Sri Lanka has condemned the attack on peaceful protestors in Mannar, claiming that many protestors, including women and children, have ended up in hospital.
They said in a statement that one of the darkest days of this government has come to pass on the night of September 26, 2025, with the brutal attack on peaceful protestors by hundreds of police officers in Mannar.
"For years the people of Mannar have been fighting an inspiring battle against sand mining and the wind power project that threatens to destroy their fragile ecosystem. The wind turbines have affected the globally renowned migratory paths of thousands of birds and sandmining is destroying the coastal ecosystem. The people of Mannar are feeling the social, economic and ecological deterioration caused to the region.
"The government appears to be carrying through the plans of the previous regime with cosmetic changes. Having stopped the Indian investor, Adani Company from setting up a wind power plant in Mannar, the contract has been handed over to a Sri Lankan company, Hayleys Fenton. There are no assurances that the local company will do anything different from the Indian investor in terms of preserving the environment and not harming the people of Mannar.
"Similarly, the Mannar wind power project coincides with the government coming under review by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) of their ‘electricity tariff methodology’ in November 2025. This is a pre-requisite for the Extended Fund Facility. The review is to ensure ‘cost recovery and cost reflectiveness’ and the urgency to deliver a broader and privatised energy sector. The bulldozing through of the Sri Lanka Electricity Act in the past few months, moving electricity closer to complete privatisation by unbundling the services and forming new entities of the Ceylon Electricity Board and the now violent removal of people
raising concerns about the Mannar wind power project seem to align with the November deadline.
"Bringing ‘green energy’ without real consideration for the environment or human rights is an exercise in green washing which many governments and companies across the world are engaging in. Dismantling the subsidised public energy sector to make way for profit extraction by private parties in the guise of expanding renewable energy projects is another trend we are witnessing the world over. To see the National People’s Power government joining these ranks is troubling. The move is particularly tragic, as Sri Lanka has been known as a country that had achieved 99% electrification through its public energy sector.
"We require a thorough review of the energy infrastructure, costs and inflow through a consultative process that takes as its foundation the right to energy as a fundamental right. Through this lens, it will be possible to restructure tariffs and undertake other measures to balance cost and income from the energy sector without bringing ecological and social destruction. This is imperative as the existing mode of addressing the issue, especially through privatisation, is unsustainable in the long run and will only increase costs to the government and to the people.
"People must have a right to energy, a basic necessity for life today. This right must co-exist with the right to a safe environment. To pit one against another is a vulgar mode of functioning which has become all too common in the world. To watch a supposedly ‘progressive government’ that rose to power through the energy of the people’s protest join the bandwagon of this vulgarity is heartbreaking," they said in the statement.
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