By Skylar Cheng
On 6th March 2018, a nationwide state of emergency was imposed in Sri Lanka. This was the first of its kind since the 25-year civil war ended nine years ago. A series of religious riots had broken out, in a conflict between the nations Buddhist-majority and Muslim-minority. The government responded with the declaration of a state of emergency, forcefully cracking down on the riots and deploying the Sri Lankan Armed Forces to assist the police in affected areas.
On Sunday, 18th March 2018, Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena wrote on Twitter, Upon assessing the public safety situation, I instructed to revoke the state of emergency from midnight yesterday. Thus, the two-week long state of emergency was lifted. The anti-Muslim riots began in Ampara on 26th February 2018, but the situation in Kandy District between 2nd March and 10th March gained more traction with the media.
The immediate inciting incidents
On the night of 26th February, a group of youths visited a restaurant on D.S. Senanayake Street in Ampara town. They were served a dish with an ingredient that resembled tablets. The restaurants owner, a Muslim man, allegedly conceded that the food contained sterilisation pills. This was recorded and shared by one of the youths, inciting a mob to physically attack the restaurants owner.
Authorities were also alerted to the video and promptly arrested the restaurant owner. It was only proven later that he had been wrongly accused. In the video, the restaurant owner had nodded his head in terror when faced with the angry mob. He was asked if the food contained wandapethi (sterilisation pills), a Sinhala word that he could not understand.
In Kandy District, on 22nd February, a lorry driver at Karaliedda filling station in the Teldeniya police area was assaulted by four Muslim youths. He was admitted to the Kandy General Hospital and died a few days later. The four suspects were arrested and remanded.
The resulting violence
A total of four Muslim-owned shops and a mosque were attacked and damaged in Ampara, and at least five people were wounded. Police reinforcements were rushed from nearby police stations. The mobs were dispersed with the assistance of the Special Task Force (STF).
Areas with larger Muslim populations, in Addalaichenai, Akkaraipattu, Kalmunai, Maruthamunai and Sammanthurai, conducted Hartals (strike actions) as a response to the anti-Muslim riots. Eight buses were damaged and Tamil media reporters were protected by the police. 31 Muslims were arrested for defacing public property and released after being issued warnings.
On the night of 2nd March, as the body of the assaulted victim was being taken to Ambala, violence was ignited in Udispattuwa. Despite deploying 1000 STF personnel in and around the area encompassing Udispattuwa, Ambagahalanda, Moragahamula and Teldeniya, two Muslim-owned shops in Moraghamula were subjected to arson on 4th March. The unrest spread like wildfire. On 5th March, a large mob converged on Digana, setting aflame a mosque, shops and houses.
The police responded with tear gas and water cannons, hoping to disperse the crowd. The attempt proved futile as the mob retaliated with various projectiles and the violence spread further to more residences, shops and nearby vehicles. By 3 pm, the Sri Lankan Army was deployed from the Sinha Regiment base in Digana. A curfew was imposed in Kandy, Teldeniya and Pallekele. By the evening of 6th March, a total of four mosques, 37 houses, 46 shops and 35 vehicles were damaged or destroyed because of the riots.
The straw that broke the camels back
While seemingly isolated incidents, the scale and devastation of the riots that followed highlighted the underlying tensions in Sri Lanka. While most coexist peacefully, many of the majority Sinhalese, making up 74.9 percent (2012 census) of the population, are suspicious of the minority Muslims, who make up only 9.7 percent of the population (2012 census). Some worry about the threat of high birth rates on demographic supremacy, while others view Muslim businessmen as exploitative towards the poor Sinhalese.
On top of that, in recent years, money coming from the Arab countries has been involved in the construction of mosques in Sri Lanka. The adoption of the ‘niqab’ by Muslim women, diverging from the traditional dress in the area, also set off an alarm-bell as to the growing Arab influence over Sri Lankan Muslim culture. All this plays into the hands of the Sinhalese extremists. Some political analysts believe that these nationalists are trying to transfer remaining hostility from the 25-year civil war against Tamils onto the mostly Tamil-speaking Muslim population.
The leader of a Sinhalese nationalist group, Amith Weerasinghe, made a video which was shared widely on Facebook, Youtube and Twitter. In the video, he claims that while distributing leaflets for his campaign in the Kandy District, [they] havent come across even 20 shops that are owned by Sinhalese upon reaching Digana. He goes on to declare that [Digana] has come to belong only to the Muslims. We should have started to address this long time ago.
His group, Mahason Balakaya, along with Buddhist monk Galagoda Atte Gnanasaras Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) are prominent Sinhalese nationalist groups that spread and amplify false anti-Muslim beliefs on social media. What results is an underlying current of anti-Muslim radicalism, easily triggered by small, isolated incidents wherever a Sinhalese party and a Muslim party are in conflict.
The state of emergency
The Prime Minister tweeted, As a nation that endured a brutal war we are all aware of the values of peace, respect, unity and freedom. The government condemns the racist and violent attacks that have taken place over the last few days. A state of emergency has been declared and we will not hesitate to take further action. Upon declaring a state of emergency on 6th March, a series of special measures were enacted by the government.
Soldiers were deployed across the island for an initial ten-day period to prevent the unrest from spreading. All schools in Kandy were suspended on 7th March and a strict curfew remains in the most volatile areas. Internet and phone access were restricted, with Kandy District mobile operators being instructed to block all data transmissions to prevent the spread of photos. This meant that social media platforms, such as Facebook, and online messaging apps, such as Viber and WhatsApp, were blocked for the entirety of two weeks.
International response
Biraj Patnaik, Amnesty Internationals South Asia Director, emphasised the importance of the government action to protect vulnerable groups and hold perpetrators accountable for acts of violence against religious minorities. However, he cautioned that any steps that are taken to address the problem, however, must meet Sri Lankas obligations under international human rights law, including the absolute prohibition on torture, unfair trials and arbitrary detention.
UN spokesperson, Stephane Dujarric said, We are obviously concerned over reports of the ongoing communal violence, and we welcome the government’s commitment to addressing the tensions and achieve reconciliation. We urge all Sri Lankans to resolve their difference through dialogue. Turkey, the United States, the European Union, Canada and China have each made separate statements with regards to the issue.