Why Violent Attacks Continue Against Muslims In Sri Lanka?

Gnanasara

By R Hariharan -June 17, 2014

Col. (retd) R.Hariharan

“Bodu Bala Sena General 

Secretary Galagodaaththe Gnanasara Thero addressing the rally in Aluthgama yesterday, referred to Muslims in derogatory terms and accused sections of the Government of being in collaboration with the Muslim Community. “They keep calling us racist and religious extremists. Yes, we are racists,” he charged as the crowd cheered him on. “This country still has a Sinhala police a Sinhala army. If a single Sinhalese is touched, that will be the end of all them,” he screamed.” – From Dharisha Bastiyan’s report in the Sri Lankan online portal Daily FT on June 16, 2014

The above media quote provides the simple answer to question “Why violent attacks continue against Muslims in Sri Lanka? The words quoted above are from the speech of Bodu Bala Sena (BBS)’s founder leader Gunasara Thero at a rally organized in Aluthagama on June 15.                     Read More

Video: Who Started The Riot?

ItJune 17, 2014 

The Colombo Telegraph last afternoon received a clip of the purported catalyst which triggered Sunday riot, which is currently being widely circulated on social media.

The clip has also been posted on a Facebook page purported to be that of the Bodu Bala Sena , under the title “who started the riot?” and affiliated social media portals of the BBS on Facebook and other avenues.

In a narration to the video posted on all pages, it says that the video shows that “those who walked in the procession were organised and threw stones at the bystanders”.

Colombo Telegraph cannot independently verify the authenticity of the said video.

Elderly Muslims are seen calming the bystanders who are believed to be Muslims by raising their hands upward.

While marching those in the procession are heard chanting “whose force is this? its the force of the sinhalese ( Kageda mey balawegey, Sinhalayage balawegey” after which at the end of the clip a few youth start throwing unknown items that they carried towards the bystanders who then flee.

The BBS has carried the entire narration which reads.

“Many of the Sinhala media attempted to show that it was the Muslims who attacked the procession first. But this video is slef explanatory, an organised group who were walking in the procession start pelting stones at the Muslim bystanders”

Is the BBS the boss?

• The BBS bid for power and how to beat it-Tuesday 17th June 2014

There are scarier things, worse things, than Black July ’83. Aluthgama signalled the possibility of such things.
The sequence of events, the lethal violence, the horror of Aluthgama were reminiscent of July ’83 – and to go by Tarzie Vittachchi’s Emergency ’58, the anti-Tamil riots of that year. That is the element of dark continuity, which we must never forget in our haste to define the present as the worst of times. But there is also the element of discontinuity which makes Aluthgama potentially far more dangerous.

Is the BBS the boss by nelvely

Red pottus, black burqas: Identity markers in Sri Lanka’s extremist violence

BY NIMMI GOWRINATHAN June 16 at 10:57 PM

Kim Yi Dionne: This guest post by political scientist Nimmi Gowrinathandraws from her earlier research and ongoing analysis of gender and violence in Sri Lanka.

Red Pottus, Black Burqas Identity Markers in Sri Lanka’s Extremist Violence by nelvely

Buddhist-Muslim Unrest Boils Over in Sri Lanka

ALUTHGAMA, Sri Lanka — In some of the worst religious violence in Sri Lanka in decades, three people have been killed and 78 injured in riots between Buddhists and Muslims in this southwestern coastal town after months of rising tensions, officials said Monday. The riots on Sunday followed a protest march by a hard-line Buddhist group, Bodu Bala Sena, which is led in part by monks … continue reading

Sri Lankan Riots Claim Fourth Victim; Not A Single Arrest Made Yet

A June 17, 2014

58 year old guard of a farm in an adjoining area to Welipanna was flogged to death last night, by a mob who had stormed the premises.

Initial reports said that the deceased was a Tamil who the mob had mistaken to be a Muslim.

Police confirmed that the death had occurred last night ” after being assaulted by a mob”.

No arrests have been made in connection with the murder or the riots.

Related posts;

BBS terrorists yet again commit arson: Weththewa animal farm torched; kill 100 fowls and a Tamil watcher by cutting and chopping
(Lanka-e-News- 17.June.2014, 9.30PM) The armed Bodhu Bala Sena (BBS) terrorists who are now a law unto themselves with the patronage of the Medamulana Rajapakses , broke into a three acre animal farm yesterday night at Weththewa of Kalutara district in the Kalutara police division , and killed one watcher by brutally cutting and chopping , while assaulting the other , and thereafter set fire to the farm.

The owner of this 'Wendesiwatte farm' is a prominent Muslim businessman. At the time the attack was launched there were 600 fowls and 30 goats. The farm has a house and two rooms. The office watcher is 57 years old Karuppan Sivalingam , a Tamil national . When the attack was launched , another watcher a Sinhalese, R.D.P . Wethewa was at the gate leading to the farm.

Yesterday (16) night the BBS terrorist group that broke into the farm had brutally cut and chopped the watcher Sivalingam , and killed him. Subsequently they have ruthlessly assaulted the Sinhalese watcher who had managed to escape death. His head is seriously injured while his left leg had been broken and is severed .

Thereafter about 100 fowls that were in the farm had been killed by the brutal BBS terrorists . The animals that were trapped had been killed with the help of rods , clubs and by aiming large stones at them.

After killing watcher Sivalingam these BBS terrorists have entered the office section , looted the office and set the office on fire. The TV , 2 Dialog receivers and dish antenna had been taken out and destroyed.

The warehouse of the farm where food are stored had also been totally destroyed by fire. Though the loss suffered had still not been assessed , it is believed the total loss is around Rs.45 million.

The owner had not come forward to lodge a complaint with the police so far. As usual in present SL under the reign of the bestial rulers where jungle laws are enforced and rule of law is deposed , not a single criminal had been arrested. Eye witnesses say , while the attack was being launched , nobody came to the rescue of the victims , and they just remained as idle spectators.

VIDEO: Sri Lanka does not belong only to Buddhists – Vajira Thero

 June 17, 2014 

A group of religious leaders today urged the country’s masses not to be deceived by any false rumors and to work towards establishing peace in Sri Lanka, in the wake of recent religious clashes and unrest.   

As religious leaders we always work with great effort towards building peace, coexistence and unity between all races in order to transform the country into a peaceful one and thereby reach prosperity, said Ven. Professor Kumburugamuwa Vajira Thero of the Inter Religious Organisation for National Unity.

“However, unfortunately certain groups, challenging our wishes, are attempting to destroy this unity, tranquility and coexistence,” he told reporters in Colombo.

He stated that the events which unfolded in Aluthgama and Beruwala are the latest incidents of these attempts and called for an immediate stop to anymore blood spill. 

We have experienced the destruction caused by racial hatred and religious hatred for a period of over 30 years and are used to the tears, blood spilled due to it, he said. 

“That is why we have advised the people against these actions, then and now.”

Pleading for the public to understand the prevailing situation and the consequence, the Vajira Thero asked them not to be deceived by rumors and to make attempt to establish peace in the country.  

“If someone commits a wrongdoing, don’t go seeking vengeance,” he urged, while asking the country’s Buddhists to follow the teachings of Lord Buddha.   

“A wrong is a wrong no matter who did it and the government should appropriately punish those wrongs,” he said.

The Thero stated that the country belongs to every citizen and that the rights of every one of them should be protected. 

“We do not accept that this country only belongs to the Sinhalese or only to Buddhists. This country belongs to everyone who lives in it,” he expressed. 

Three Muslims Arrested; BBS Chief Resigns: No Arrest Of “Mob”

Kirama Wimalajothi

June 17, 2014

Three Muslims have been arrested this afternoon while reportedly attempting to torch a Sinhalese business establishment in Darga Town, with no arrests being made as yet on the mob which caused mayhem in theAluthgama and surrounding area during the past two nights.

Reports said that the youth had been arrested with two petrol bombs, while one youth had been arrested while attempting to flee.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a senior defence official told Colombo Telegraph that the 12 persons played an integral role in the riot, but were released due to orders.The Colombo Telegraph reliably learns, that 12 persons who were the ‘main brains’ behind the riots, belonging to the BBS or its affiliations were arrested and released on orders “from the top”.

Meanwhile, a Bodu Bala Sena affiliated rally organised in Mawanella was called off after the Police obtained a court order against the rally.

Media reports also said that the Chairman of the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) Kirama Wimalajothi had resigned from the organisation “due to his dismay at its conduct”

Reports however said that Wamalajothi was not willing to come before the media and make a statement denouncing the organisation.

Earlier a Sri Lankan journalist, detailing the modus operandi of the BBS wrote that the BBS opts to blackmail monks who do not fall in line with their ideologies, leaving many against the organisation helpless.

                                      Related posts;

Mahanayake “Asserts Unity”

Ven, Davuldena Gnanisssara thero, the Mahanayake of the Amarapura Chapter-June 17, 2014 |

Making the first statement by a Chief Prelate, Ven, Dawuldena Gnanissara thero, the Mahanayake of the Amarapura Chapter, denounced the violence and stance of the Bodu Bala Sena stating that ” We were a country that lived together without any racial religious hatred” and asserted that ” Sinhalese Tamils and Muslims should all live together ”

“We were a country that lived peacefully. If there is an issue that should have been settled through conversation not by violence to persons and property. I assert that the Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims should live together”In a handwritten statement the Mahanayake thero said that the incidents in Aluthgama and Beruwala are unfortunate.

The statement titled “peace through the Buddhist philosophy” is construed as a direct contradiction of the actions and sentiments of the Bodu Bala Sena.

The statement comes over 48 hours after the riots. There has been no denouncing or condemnation of the riot by the Mahanayake, or by the Mahanaykes of the three other chapters. The Asgiriya and Malawathu Mahanaykes are yet to make any statement regarding the riots which left 3 dead and scores injured.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa nor the Sri Lankan government has not issued a statement regarding the riots to date except for an initial ‘tweet’ by the President.

NEPAL: Police torture a Tamang family in Dhading district

NEPAL: Police torture a Tamang family in Dhading district

ISSUES: Torture, threats and intimidation, indigenous people, rule of law

June 17, 2014

Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from the Forum for Protection of People's Rights Nepal (PPR Nepal) regarding the police having tortured a Tamang family living in Jivanpur Village Development Committee (VDC)-6, Dhading district.

The police took two children, Ruben and Prabesh, in custody on 7 February 2014 and tortured them for 10 days until the children signed a confession paper. In addition, the police arrived at the village on 16 June asking for the whereabouts of the parents, Mr. Maila Tamang and Mrs. Shanti Tamang. The police have threatened the children with further illegal detention and torture if their parents do not produce themselves at the police station. Mr. Maila Tamang and his wife have taken shelter in Kathmandu. Abuse of power, impunity, and the incapacity of the Nepal police to investigate a case are again exposed in this case of torture.

NEPAL Police Torture a Tamang Family in Dhading District by nelvely

Israel considering expelling Hamas leaders from West Bank to Gaza

Response to kidnapping of three teenagers near Hebron, blamed on Islamist group, follows arrest of 150 Palestinians

Israeli soldiers search for the three missing teenagers in Halhul, West Bank. Photograph: Ilia Yefimovich/Getty Images

Peter Beaumont in Hebron-Monday 16 June 2014

Israel is considering expelling Hamas leaders from the West Bank to Gaza as part of its response to the kidnapping of three teenagers, which it has blamed on the Islamist group.

The deliberations come as Israel continued to round up members of Hamas in six West Bank towns for the third night running, including senior Palestinian lawmakers, in one of the biggest waves of arrests in recent years.

Thousands of Israeli troops and police have joined in the hunt for the three seminary students – Gil-ad Sha'er and US-Israeli national Naftali Frankel, both 16, and Eyal Yifrach, 19 – who disappeared while hitchhiking home from a yeshiva, or religious school, on the West Bank.

The kidnapping has gripped Israel, with constant news coverage and prayer vigils since news broke of the youths' disappearance on Thursday.

The Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, spoke on the phone with the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, on Monday for the first time in almost a year. Netanyahu demanded that Abbas help with the hunt for the missing youths and arrest the kidnappers.

Breaking his silence on the kidnapping and the Israeli clampdown, Abbas issued a statement condemning "the series of events over the last week, beginning with the kidnapping of the three Israeli teens and ending with a series of Israeli violations".

Although Israel has insisted Hamas was responsible, it has yet to provide any hard evidence linking the kidnapping to the group. In ominous remarks, the chief of Israel's armed forces, Lieutenant General Benny Gantz, said the military was preparing to expand its operations.

Gantz said: "We have a goal, and that is to find these three boys and bring them home, and to hit Hamas as hard as possible – and that is what we are going to do. We are on our way toward a significant campaign. We will get our plans in order."

An Israeli government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to Reuters, said Israel was looking to capitalise on the search by enforcing a wider clampdown on Hamas in the West Bank.

In an interview, the aunt of Naftali Frankel, Ittael, expressed the family's gratitude for the nationwide support and for the government's efforts to find him. "We are of course very, very worried," she added. "We really, really want to see him home fast."

Israeli forces have arrested more than 150 Palestinians, most of them from Hamas, over the past four days. The detainees included 10 Hamas legislators – one-third of the Hamas representatives from the West Bank in the long-defunct Palestinian parliament.

Among those arrested in Hebron – which has been the focus of the Israeli operation – was the speaker of the Palestinian legislative council and Hamas member Aziz Dweik, who was arrested in the early hours of Monday morning.

"They came for him at 2.30 in the morning," his son, Anas, told the Guardian at the family's home. "He was expecting it, so he had his medicine ready in a bag. I don't think it's fair. My father has not been arrested for anything he did. He has nothing to do with finding these young men. He is a political figure.

"[After the kidnapping] my father said he thought it was not helpful and would have a dramatic and negative influence on the Palestinian unity government [which is backed by Hamas]."

Elsewhere in Hebron, the city's mayor, Daoud Zatari, who on Monday visited the homes of families raided overnight, accused Israel of imposing "collective punishment" on his city of 750,000 in largely sealing it off. He added that Hebron's residents were afraid of further escalation.

The three Jewish students went missing late on Thursday while hitchhiking at a West Bank bus stop near the Palestinian city of Hebron. They were en route home, two to West Bank settlements and the third, an American citizen, to a small community in Israel. Large numbers of Israeli troops have been involved in a massive search since then, going from house to house in some areas.

Abbas's aides have rejected Netanyahu's contention that the Palestinian self-rule government was ultimately responsible, saying that Israel was in overall control of the West Bank.

The alleged kidnapping took place at a road junction that is under direct Israeli control and is commonly used by soldiers and Jewish settlers.

ISIS Uses Mafia Tactics to Fund Its Own Operations Without Help From Persian Gulf Donors

• BY YOCHI DREAZEN-JUNE 16, 2014

When fighters from the Islamic State of Syria and al-Sham (ISIS) stole tens of millions of dollars from a bank in Mosul earlier this year, it wasn’t simply a startling symbol of the collapse of Baghdad’s control over Iraq’s second-largest city. The brazen theft was instead a stark illustration of one of the most alarming aspects of ISIS’s rise: the group’s growing ability to fund its own operations through bank heists, extortion, kidnappings, and other tactics more commonly associated with the mob than with violent Islamist extremists.

ISIS Uses Mafia Tactics to Fund Its Own Operations Without Help From Persian Gulf Donors by nelvely

Barack Obama sends troops back to Iraq as Isis insurgency worsens

Paul Lewis in Washington, Spencer Ackerman in New York and Saeed Kamali Dehghan in London-Tuesday 17 June 2014

• Obama authorises 275 personnel ‘equipped for combat’ 
• White House considers special forces to advise Iraqis
• US and Iran rule out military cooperation 

The Obama adminstration has ordered the urgent deployment of several hundred armed troops in and around Iraq, after the rampant insurgency in the country forced the first talks between the US and Iran over a common security interest in more than a decade.

Barack Obama Sends Troops Back to Iraq as Isis Insurgency Worsens by nelvely

Half of Americans say gay marriage is a constitutional right

The rainbow flag symbolizing gay pride flies from a pole in Manhattan. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

BY NIRAJ CHOKSHI AND PEYTON CRAIGHILL-June 6

Support for gay marriage has backed away slightly from its record high in March, but a solid majority  supports it, and half go so far as to say that it is a right protected by the Constitution’s Equal Protection clause, according toa new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Half of Americans Say Gay Marriage is a Constitutional Right by nelvely

Tornadoes rake Nebraska countryside; 2 deaths reported

By Ed Payne, CNN-Tue June 17, 2014
(CNN) — It was a menacing sight — two powerful tornadoes swirling side by side through the countryside of northeastern Nebraska.

At one point, the twin twisters straddled a state highway.

"It was terribly wide," Marianne Pesotta told CNN affiliate KETV in the town of Pilger. “I drove east (to escape). I could see how bad it was. I had to get out of there.”

The decision to flee may have saved her life.

Stanton County Sheriff Mike Unger said up to three-quarters of Pilger, a town of about 350 people, was destroyed Monday. The severe weather also caused damage in the towns of Wisner, Stanton and Pender.

All four communities are within about 40 miles (64 kilometers) of one another, about and hour and a half northwest of Omaha.

The National Weather Service also received unconfirmed tornado reports in Iowa, North Dakota and Wisconsin, where emergency workers were searching homes in the cities of Madison and Verona after possible wind damage there, according to police. There were no reports of injuries or deaths, said Tom Prochaska of the Madison police communication center.

The aftermath was almost too much to take for some like Marilyn Andersen, another Pilger resident.

"I’ve never been through this before," she told affiliate KMTVthrough tears. “It was an experience, and I don’t want to go through it again.”

Two deaths were reported. Unger said a 5-year-old was killed in Pilger, but he didn’t say how. Another person died outside of town, he said.

Faith Regional Health Services in Norfolk said 16 people were critically injured in the severe weather.

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Early into Tuesday morning, officials were assessing the damage, trying to determine how many were injured and how much damage was done.

"We’re still digging people out," said Sanford Goshorn, the emergency manager in Stanton County, where Pilger and Stanton are located.

Wisner is in Cuming County, and Pender in Thurston County.

Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman, who will tour the storm damage Tuesday, issued a state of emergency, putting the National Guard on standby to help if needed.

The state emergency management agency reported “severe damage” across the affected counties.

"They talk about war zones — yes, this looks like a war zone," Goshorn said. "This looks like a war zone in Pilger."

North Dakota tornado strikes oil field camp, destroys 12 RVs

Mid-Atlantic braves huge hail, pounding rains and powerful winds

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