Wednesday, June 18, 2014

FUTA blames police for A’gama ethnic violence



By Dasun Edirisinghe, the island

University teachers yesterday accused the police of swiftly seeking judicial orders to prevent university students from holding protest marches, but they had failed to anticipate the consequences of an extremist quasi-religious organisation holding a large public rally in the Alutgama area already simmering with religious tension last Sunday.

Secretary of the Federation of University Teachers’ Associations (FUTA) Dr. Rohan Fernando said that they wondered how violence had continued unabated for several hours with much damage to property, businesses and places of worship despite the heavy presence of the police and STF.

Vehemently condemning the violent incidents and complete breakdown of law and order that transpired in Aluthgama and Beruwala areas, Dr. Fernando said that FUTA saw the Alutgama incident as an individual expression of a larger systemic problem.

He said the FUTA believed, as with the recent attack on Ruhuna university students and lecturers and a number of incidents of intimidation at Jaffna university and the general stifling of any form of dissent by trade unions, students or other civil society groups, the Alutgama incident pointed to a dangerous culture of impunity that was nurtured and fostered by those within or close to the current regime.

"In any multicultural society, ethnic and religious tensions do occur but it is the role of the state to act swiftly and decisively to stem such tensions and protect its citizens," Dr. Fernando said, adding that Sri Lanka had just emerged from 30 years of brutal and lacerating civil conflict and could ill-afford another ethno-religious conflagration.