A State of Disorientation: Dispatch from Sri Lanka after the Easter Bombings

A Sri Lankan soldier stands guard near a car explosion after the police tried to defuse a bomb near St. Anthony's Shrine in Colombo on April 22, 2019, a day after the series of bomb blasts targeting churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka.

JEWEL SAMAD—AFP/Getty Images

BY ANUK ARUDPRAGASAM 

MAY 22, 2019

In Colombo, as though there is war once more, the ominous presence of heavily armed soldiers is everywhere. Ever since the Easter Sunday bombings, checkpoints have been posted on all the main roads, as well as outside churches and mosques. There are rumors every day of further possible bombings, of newly discovered perpetrators and accomplices still on the run, and a State of Emergency has been declared in the country. The same State of Emergency that during the civil war allowed the government to detain, interrogate, and torture at will. There are recurring curfews and bans on social media, and even when these are lifted the streets are mostly empty by late evening. People avoid congregating in public spaces, especially Muslims, whose fears that the bombings will be used as a pretext for yet another series of violent attacks on their community are already materializing.

There is something almost unbearable in this state of disorientation, something more than just fear for one’s life and safety. Life as usual has been interrupted, the routines and rhythms that anchor people to their environments suspended. People have been compelled to stop, look up from the daydream of ordinary life, and take stock of themselves and the world in which they live, a process that most people in most places, Sri Lanka and elsewhere, would rather avoid. What would drive nine mostly middle-class Sri Lankan Muslims to such acts of violence and self-destruction? And why target Christians, of all people, who in this country have hurt nobody for the sake of their beliefs? In the newspapers and on the TV, in buses and private vehicles, in offices, shops, and living rooms, everywhere there is a palpable anxiety to find answers, to obtain an explanation that will allow for a return to the soothing indifference of ordinary life.

In response to similar attacks that have occurred in the Western world, a readymade script has long been prepared for this purpose. The main protagonists of this script, of course, are radical Islamists, terrorists with ruthless disregard for human life, people who have no history except the history of their radicalization, and who will stop at nothing to destroy the peace. It is a script that is easy to use, one that allows complex histories to be simply written and simply processed, and it is this script that the international media have almost universally resorted to in covering the recent events in Sri Lanka.

It is worth asking why the Easter Sunday bombings have given the country unprecedented attention in the Western world. There already seems to have been more coverage of the bombings than there was of the massacres of Tamil civilians during the last phase of the civil war that ended in 2009, when according to the UN up to 40,000 people were killed at the hands of the Sinhala-Buddhist state. The accusations of genocide and war crimes made by Tamils, of little concern to the political interests of Europe and the United States, were relayed quietly and with little overt sympathy in the West. The Easter Sunday bombings, on the other hand, offer the Western press an ideological opportunity that has been taken up with aplomb by newscasters and pundits who speak with practiced authority on the subject, their eyebrows gravely furrowed and their voices filled with concern.

Whereas jihadist attacks in Europe and the US are obviously connected with the long and brutal history of Western imperialism in the Middle East, the attacks on the overwhelmingly peaceful Christian communities in Sri Lanka cannot easily be explained along such lines. The bombings have therefore allowed commentators in the West to focus solely on the anti-human nature of radical Islam, to portray it as an ideology which, instead of being a misguided political response to a history of oppression, comes out of a free-floating, ahistorical, unbridled will to death. The narrative is useful, since it allows the West to view itself too as the blameless victim of an intrinsically evil ideology, as though its own complicity can now be disregarded when considering the jihadist attacks that have taken place on its own soil. How can the West’s continued military and political interference with affairs in the Middle East be questioned, after all, when the ideology under consideration is one of pure and simple evil? Much the same might be said of the Indian media’s enthusiastic coverage of the bombings in Sri Lanka, too, since actions committed by the Indian military in Kashmir have given rise to a similar obsession with Islamic radicalism there.

The Sri Lankan government and media, by and large, has been eager to follow this global script, as though nothing but the abstract evil of radical Islam could be responsible for the Easter Sunday bombings. It has gone so far as to follow various European countries in banning the burqa, despite the fact that no burqa had any role in the bombings or the deaths. As conscientious Sri Lankans know, however, the island has its own long and ugly history of anti-Muslim sentiment. Local stereotypes and discriminations against Sri Lankan Muslims abound – often portrayed as unscrupulous or untrustworthy, the Sinhala and Tamil middle-classes are often reluctant to rent their homes even to well-off members of the community. These prejudices have little to do with Islamic beliefs per se, and much more to do with local histories: with the complex caste-related undertones of anti-Muslim prejudice, with economic resentment against the success of Muslim businesses, and with shifting political alliances and power configurations between the Muslim, Sinhala, and Tamil communities during and after the war.

Different political forces on the island are well practiced in exploiting these biases for their own ends. The Tamil Tigers notably did so when they forcibly expelled tens of thousands of Muslims from Jaffna in 1990, on the pretext that the Muslim community was betraying the separatist cause. In the postwar years it has been the forces of Sinhala Buddhist supremacy that have systematically targeted Muslims on the island, in the campaigns for ending Halal certification, in the agitations for the boycott of Muslim-owned businesses, and above all in the anti-Muslim riots of 2014 and 2018 that resulted in the looting and burning of hundreds of Muslim shops and homes. The outbreaks of violence against the Muslim community that have followed the Easter Sunday bombings will no doubt be explained away as anger in response to the actions of the extremists, but the truth is that anti-Muslim violence in Sri Lanka has preceded the recent bombings by several years, and anti-Muslim prejudice by far longer.

It is important that these acts of anti-Muslim hatred, largely ignored or condoned by the country’s majority Buddhist population, have come on the heels of the massacre of Tamil civilians during the end of the war, as if with the complete subjugation of one minority the country has needed to find another minority against which its aggression can be expressed. The two events cannot be compared, but they cannot be viewed in isolation. They point to a majority community that continually projects its fears, shames, and insecurities onto various racialized others, a majority that is unable to take responsibility for its own past and its own destiny, which is in constant need of an externalized object of resentment.

The fact that the bombings were directed primarily against Christians rather than Buddhists will be taken as evidence by many Sri Lankans that the bombings have their source in Jihadist ideology alone. Whatever motivations are ultimately attributed to the perpetrators, though, Sri Lanka’s postwar history makes it clear that the influence of radical Islamic organizations like ISIS can be at most a proximate cause. Such organizations may have influenced the choice of target and they may have even supplied material and technical resources, but such ideologies can only be appealing – even if only to a very small minority of Muslims – if they address deep and systematic wounds that already exist.

The palpable sense of anxiety in Sri Lanka in the immediate aftermath of the attacks, the urgently felt need to find a more global, self-exonerating narrative, comes precisely from the country’s unwillingness to see how it has inflicted such wounds on its minorities. Without such a narrative the horror of the recent attacks threatens to turn the gaze of Sri Lankan society inwards, towards its own deeply engrained racism and unexamined history of violence, towards the various senses of inadequacy and insecurity at their source. With the help of global Islamophobia, a misleading but viable script has now presented itself, allowing the country’s majority population to reassure itself of its image of self and nation, to return to ordinary life (and increasingly ordinary anti-Muslim violence) with the guarantee that these cherished images will not be disturbed. It is easier sometimes to follow a script, after all, even when it comes at the cost of peace.

Contact us at editors@time.com.

Global Islamophobia and its Lankan agents

JVP supporters and civil society activists hold a protest in Colombo against the anti-Muslim mob attacks. AFP

 24 May 2019

Islamophobia is an industry. It is US$ 500 million strong in the United States alone, according to research carried out by the Council for American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the University of California, and a Carter Centre publication titled ‘Countering the Islamophobia Industry’.  
Certainly, the millions being pumped into this industry are not spent on creating a peaceful world. Rather, it is spent on spreading hate, violence or bringing about a clash of civilisations. 
Islamophobia is an international network. Its tentacles extend to every country where Muslims are a minority: In Asia, the network’s monstrous footprint is visible in a pugnacious way in India, Myanmar and in Sri Lanka, as seen in Aluthgama in 2014, Digana last year and several places last week.
Although Islamophobia is loosely defined as fear, dislike or prejudice against Islam and Muslims, it is a worst form of racism, feeding into terrorism. There appears to be a symbiotic relationship between Islamophobia and terrorism. They are two sides of the same despised coin. 
In the US, top Islamobhobes are neoconservatives and they have close links with hawks in the Donald Trump administration. Their links with National Security Advisor John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo are widely reported in the US media. 

Islamophobes promote wars in the Middle East and violence against Muslims. Their strategy is to first demonise and de-humanise Muslims before unleashing violence on them. The strategy ensures that there will not be much international outcry – not even from the United Nations or those countries championing the Responsibility-to-Protect doctrine -- when Muslims are killed in their thousands, as happened in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere. Benjamin Netanyahu’s Israel has already dehumanised the Palestinians, whose deaths and suffering, as a result, have ceased to be a concern for the world.
This is because fear-mongering Islamophobic literature labels Muslims and Arabs as evil, savage, people without soul, terrorists who want to conquer the West and bring the world under the Shariah Law.
Their strategy has given way to a vicious cycle of violence and counter-violence. It begins with US Islamophobes promoting wars on Muslim countries. What follow is indiscriminate civilian killings, which lead to the radicalization of the civilian population, especially the youth.
In countries where Muslims are in a minority, the strategy involves Western Islamophobes’ agents unleashing violence on Muslims. In countries like India and Sri Lanka, some Muslims may be provoked to take the law unto their hands; more so when they lose hope in the country’s judicial process and see the law enforcement authorities as collaborators in the violence perpetrated against them.  When there is a perception that the wrongs cannot be righted within the country’s legal and judicial framework, the disturbed mind is radicalised; revenge is seen as the only option. 

It is claimed that some of those who were involved in the April 21 Easter Sunday terror attacks had been radicalised after the Aluthgama and Digana anti-Muslim riots.  Terrorists are not born. They are made. One need not be a terrorist expert to conclude that Islamophobia-driven hate attacks produce recruits for ISIS.  Inculcating into these raw recruits’ mind a terror ideology presented as the true religion, ISIS uses them in terror attacks to achieve its agenda or that of its handlers, who are most probably the very forces that fund the Islamophobia industry. Needless to say, these terror attacks swell up Islamophobia, which, in turn, whips up public support for neocon wars which invariably leads to attacks on Muslim civilians. The knock-on effect produces more terrorists, more terror attacks and more Islamophobia, more wars…
The cycle goes on and the end result is a violence-ridden world, with hatred, mutual suspicion and distrust defining relations between communities and even neigbhours. It can even lead to genocide as happened to the European Jews during World War II and to Rwanda’s Tutsis in 1994.  
Islamophobia is a post-Cold War phenomenon. During the Cold War period, the West used Islam as an instrument to counter communism. Speaking to the Washington Post last year, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman revealed that at the request of the West, his country exported Wahhabism, investing in mosques and madrasas overseas, to prevent the Communists from gaining a foothold in Muslim countries.

But after the end of the Cold War, the military industry complex or the arms lobby wanted a bogey to stay in business: The Islamic terrorists were made. They became a useful tool in the neoconservative’s empire-building plan – call it the war on terror -- aimed at maintaining the US military and economic dominance all over the world through wars, military bases and economic neo-colonialism. With the new enemy, the term Islamophobia came into use. The 9/11 attacks gave the Islamophobes the much needed legitimacy.  Under Trump, Islamophobia has become part of the state policy, as seen in his Muslim travel ban order. In Trump’s America, more than one hundred Islamophobic groups operate, openly propagating hate. When Trump took over, there were only about 34 such groups.
San Francisco University’s Race Studies Professor Rabab Ibrahim Abdulhadi sees Islamophobia as an institutionalised, structural and systemic war on Muslims and anyone who is seen as associated with Islam, Muslimness and Muslim issues. As such it constitutes a systematic form of racism and racial discrimination.
In the US and some parts of Europe, it was this racism that refused to shelter Syrian refugees fleeing war and persecution. In India, it was this racism that made the Narendra Modi government to chase away Rohingya refugees fleeing genocide.

It appears that in the forefront of this global Islamophobic campaign are fascist elements in Trump’s United States, Netanyahu’s Israel and Modi’s India. The network is well connected and their Islamophobic narratives have a common thread. Perhaps, Sri Lanka’s racists groups are part of the network. Yet the threats the Islamophobes pose is often overlooked, only to be acknowledged whenever a white supremacist terrorist strikes, as happened in Christchurch in March.
But it needs to be mentioned here that condemning the so-called Islamic terrorism is not Islamophobia, but unleashing violence on the entire Muslim community for the terror attacks they do not approve is. Sri Lanka’s Muslims damn the terrorists who killed more than 250 innocent people in the Easter Sunday terror blasts. 
It’s unfortunate that at a time when Sri Lanka’s Muslims are cooperating with the security forces and trying to deal with the canker of radicalisation, Islamophobic racists launched a series of attacks on Muslims, creating the conditions for more radicalisation. Are the racists working to the agenda of global Islamophobes?
It also appears that some media groups are part of this global Islamophobic campaign. In the US, it is Fox News. In Sri Lanka, we know who they are. It is again unfortunate that these media groups violated ethics to whip up anti-Muslim hatred with their coverage of security operations connected to the terror attacks. But they took cover behind the very ethics they had binned to under-report the violence against the Muslims. Isn’t this media terrorism?

In the name of security: How the Burqa/Niqab Ban is Impacting Muslim Women

To defeat the cruel aims of terrorism, we must have to follow the practices of democracy, coexistence, proper education, decent media, efficient administration and economic development.

 

by Indi Akurugoda-2019-05-23

Terrorism can be simply defined as the use of violence and intimidation against civilians in the pursuit of political aims. Except this, terrorists can extend their violence and intimidation against political authorities, political leaders, civil society organizations and private businesses as well. The extremist religious, ethnic and political opinions show a significant tendency in transforming easily into terrorism. The people’s will and the government support towards such extremist opinions can be resulted in strong and widespread terrorist movements.

In a different perspective, political authoritiespossibly can develop unlawful connections with terrorist groups. At the same time, governments and political leaderstend to use military and police to promote state terrorism. This could appear in various ways,such as anarchist rule, authoritarian policy processes and undemocratic governing practices.Simultaneously, this state terrorismtends tomerge with media terrorism, the unethical and indecent media practices that definitely could lead to spread violence and intimidation upon civilians.

In the aftermath of the brutal terrorist attack by Islamic extremists on April 21, 2019 aiming a number of prominent Christian churches and luxury hotels, several hidden characteristics of the Sri Lankan political and social arena have suddenly been re-appeared. Significantly, a major group of people started exhibiting the pictures of dead bodies of the victimized innocent civilians on social media and calling to justify the previous authoritarian Rajapaksa regime. This group of people was missing the enjoyment of the death fantasy and cruel happiness since the regime change in January 2015. The sudden outreach of such group can be identified as a disgusting attempt to justify the extremist political opinions of the Rajapaksa regime and to clear the ground to re-establish their anarchist power structures upon the bloodstreams of innocent civilians.

Clearly, the Sinhala Buddhist extremists have fueled up to force the government to release the imprisoned monks who accused of violent behavior and intimidation. The destructive and violent extremist movements of these monks to diminish the unity and coexistence of the country resulted in imprisoning them under the Sri Lankan law. In the immediate aftermath of bomb attacks, the authoritarian politicians who unconditionally supported and sponsored these murderous extremist monks have suddenly been appeared as heroes and started justifying their previous regime rule. Sadly, most of the Sinhala and Buddhist people who represent every social stratum have shown their support to such extremist monks and politicians to justify ethno-chauvinism against the Sri Lankan Muslims. They started spreading utter hostility upon Muslimstreating them as ultimate opponents.

Another group of people who voluntarily support the above hostilityis the Sinhala diaspora live in Europe. Although most of them do odd jobs in Europe, they dream to obtain permanent residency or citizenship in such European countries. Until the bomb attackson April 21, 2019, they underestimated their motherland through overexaggerating their “luxury” life in Europe. It is interesting to observe their instant patriotism upon Sri Lanka after the bomb attacks. The loudest demand to boycott products and shops of Muslimshave emerged from this diasporic group. Incredibly, while living abroad, they try to pretend as great political analysts promoting a “Sinhala Buddhist only” Sri Lanka (It is important to note that these people are totally anti-Western though they earn doing odd jobs in Western European countries). This group of people attacks the peaceful coexistence in Sri Lanka and continually abuse the valuable and meaningful Buddhist sermons and teachings.

Furthermore, there is another group that reflects a mania of exaggerating war heroism. Since the end of the war in May 2009, these people have not received any chance to promote their favorite war heroism. The hidden agenda of this sudden mania can be identified as a reaction to force the government to release the military and intelligence officials who are accused ofmurders and human rights violations.

Surprisingly, most people have intentionally forgotten the major incidents happened to the duty conscious military officials during the post-war period.General Sarath Fonseka was imprisoned under false accusations and court-martialed for committing military offences. He was cashiered from the army, having been stripped of his rank, medals and decorations, and his military pension was forfeited. Military officials were recruited to clear trash in municipal council areas, clean drainage lines and to sell vegetables and coconuts. Karuna Amman, the former LTTE militant who is accused ofmassacring of 600 police officials,was appointed as a minister and as a deputy president of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party. The list is quite long and these are some prominent incidents only. So, at the time of these incidentswhere were the people who have suddenly awakenedat present to promote war heroism? Did they findmore importance of protecting the authoritarian regime at that time than promoting war heroes?

Today, the state-sponsored terrorism which took place during the post-war period has been totally forgotten by a majority of people in Sri Lanka. It can be identified as an opportunistic and intentional forgetfulness. Independent journalists and social activists were murdered in public;several brutal attacks and disappearances were reported; political oppositions were threatened; and a “white van phobia” was created to suppress the independent thinkers and social movements. The innocent civilians who protested,demanding justice were brutally killed; many prisoners in the jail located in the capital city were shot dead. Where were the maniac patriots when the rulers of the previous regime were using the military and police to fulfill their authoritarian agendas? Now they seem attempting to crown such murderous anarchic rulers as saviors of the country and rejecting democracy and human rights demanding blood to blood.

Within this chaotic context, it is a relief to see the groups and individuals who reject the extremist ethno-chauvinistic political views and promote democracy, pluralism and coexistence in Sri Lanka.

The April 21 tragedy can be interpreted as a result of the anarchist initiatives occurred when the present Executive President ousted the legally elected Prime Minister and empowered the rejected political forces on October 26, 2018. It is important to remind the politicians,including the President,who try to escape from their responsibilities, that they represent a major force which fueled the extremists and drove the country towards an anarchic rule underestimating democratic values.Now these extremists are trying to intimidate citizens; grab power stagnating the state mechanism; and to exaggerate the situation to discourage people adjusting to normalcy. Anarchism never could provide a solution to terrorism. It could fuelstate terrorism and extremist terrorism at the same time.

To overcome the present chaos, we need to get rid of the emotional, depoliticized, opportunistic and extremist positions, and to identify real facets of terrorism. The terrorists do a little; but we are the people who continue to carry on their rest of the cruel expectations illogically and uncritically to harm the society. The emotional, depoliticized, opportunistic and extremist groups are the mostdestructive forces of the society. The illogical and uncritical media significantly contribute these forces. In the final analysis, intentionally or unintentionally they destroy the society through wide spreading terrorism. Undoubtedly, the advantage of all these destructive actions rests with the undemocratic, authoritarian and opportunistic politicians.

If we continue staying at the homes fearfully, keeping the children without sending to schools, escaping from offices, boycotting products and shops of Muslimsand spreading hatred feelings against the other religious and ethnic groups, we definitely fulfill the aims of terrorists. When we fulfill such aims, the advantage goes to the murderers who appear as political saviors.

Terrorism, however, is a global phenomenon. The world processes have not declined due to its consequences. To defeat the cruel aims of terrorism, we must have to follow the practices of democracy, coexistence, proper education, decent media, efficient administration and economic development. This is the best and the only alternative we have at the moment.

Dr Indi Akurugoda, Department of Public Policy, University of Ruhuna

Sri Lanka rejects plans for $10m Shariah university

Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on Tuesday refused permission for a planned $10 million (SR37.5 million) Shariah university. (AFP/File)

• Madrasas to be absorbed by Ministry of Education in wake of Easter Sunday attacks
• More than 100 arrests have been made following the rioting. A curfew has been lifted and life is returning to normal

MOHAMMED RASOOLDEEN-May 21, 201923:38

COLOMBO: Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on Tuesday refused permission for a planned $10 million (SR37.5 million) Shariah university in one of the country’s main cities.

And in the wake of the deadly Easter Sunday terror attacks on hotels and churches, the premier also announced that all madrasas would be brought under the umbrella of Sri Lanka’s Education Ministry.
The latest moves by the Sri Lankan government follow widespread unrest on the island, with anti-Muslim riots having caused damage running into millions of dollars.

Wickremesinghe’s orders came after a fact-finding report into the university compiled by MP Ashu Marasinghe. He recommended that the institution, being constructed at Batticaloa, in the Eastern Province, should be privately operated and titled Batticaloa Technology University. The new education complex is located close to the township of Kattankudy where suspected ringleader of the Easter Sunday suicide bombings, Zahran Hashim, lived and preached his messages of hate and violence.

The Sri Lankan government analyst’s department said on Tuesday that DNA tests proved Hashim died in the attack at the Shangri-La hotel in Colombo.

President’s Counsel, Ali Sabry, a prominent lawyer and political analyst, told Arab News on Tuesday that the premier’s announcement was welcome.

“We don’t need a Shariah university at this juncture when there is a lot of suspicions on various Islamic topics that need to be clarified by Islamic theologians following the suicide attacks by Muslim extremists,” Sabry said. He stressed that the country’s main focus should be on strengthening ways to ensure peaceful coexistence among all communities.

The Sri Lankan University Grants Commission had a set of guidelines to license new universities, and Wickremesinghe’s latest recommendations would also be included among the requirements for a new university, Sabry added.

The prime minister’s ruling on madrasas (Islamic seminaries) would provide more transparency on the activities of the institutions, he said. “Their curriculum and their co-curricular activities should maintain a common standard and these madrasas should prepare the students to make them fit into society instead of just learning Arabic and Islam only.”

M.R.M. Malik, director of the Muslim Affairs Ministry in Colombo, told Arab News that currently all madrasas function under his ministry. “There are 317 madrasas throughout the island with an estimated 25,000 students. In addition to the local teachers, there are 38 Arabic teachers and 85 foreign students,” he said.

Most of the teachers are from Egypt, Pakistan and India, while many of the overseas students studying at the madrasas are from Libya, Pakistan, Jordan and India.

Sri Lanka Muslim Council President N.M. Ameen told Arab News that the local community had never wanted a Shariah university. However, he said the proposed curriculum for the madrasas should be constructed in consultation with Islamic scholars and the Muslim community.

Meanwhile, Western Province Gov. Azath Salley, revealed that damage caused by anti-Muslim riots had reached nearly Rs900 million (SR19.2 million). The governor was speaking to Arab News following a visit to some of the worst-affected villages on the island.

“Speaking to the families of the vandalized properties, it’s clear that an organized gang had attacked these earmarked properties owned by Muslims,” said Salley. “One child, whose father was killed in his presence, is still in a state of utter shock and dismay.” He added that turpentine oil had been poured on the face of the dead carpenter by his killers and set on fire.

The governor urged the authorities to bring the attackers to justice. He added that the government would provide compensation to victims of wrecked properties.

Police spokesman Ruwan Gunasakera said that more than 100 arrests had been made following the rioting, and that a curfew had been lifted and life was returning to normal.

Buddhist Anger Could Tear Sri Lanka Apart

Old hatreds are coming out in the aftermath of the Easter bombings.

People gather near a damaged shop after a mob attack in Minuwangoda on May 14, 2019, north of the Sri Lankan capital Colombo.LAKRUWAN WANNIARACHCHI/AFP/GETTY IMAGE

BY TAYLOR DIBBERT

 | MAY 20, 2019, 2:50 PM

The Easter bombings in Sri Lanka last month were a massive human tragedy for a country that has already experienced too much violence. Prior to the attacks on Christian churches and luxury hotels, Sri Lanka was already a deeply divided nation. The bombings and their aftermath have worsened long-standing problems and may lead to a bleak future of communal clashes, instability, greater fracturing of society, and even more loss of life.

The government’s civil war against the separatist Tamil Tigers ended on May 18, 2009. Ten years on, the Sri Lankan state, which is dominated by ethnic Sinhalese, is proving yet again that it cannot protect minority rights, and that the state is too often complicit with the Sinhalese Buddhist majority against minorities such as the mostly Hindu Tamils, who make up about 12 percent of the population, and Muslims. The root causes of the country’s long-standing ethnic conflict have been ignored for far too long. Now, with Islamic terrorism arriving on the scene with the Easter attacks, attacks against Muslims—already targeted by militant Buddhist groups in recent times—are likely to continue.

About a week ago, the country experienced its most violent 24-hour period since the Easter bombings. Mosques, Muslim-owned business, and the homes of Muslims were attacked in various areas, especially in the North Western province. One death was reported. Sri Lanka’s pogrom-filled history means that a very dark period could get even darker.

The attacks shouldn’t simply be viewed as direct retaliations for the bombings. The violence follows some previous patterns. Plenty of it is likely driven by opportunism, past prejudices among Sinhalese Buddhists that Muslims are economically better off, and the desire, as one Muslim human rights activist recently told me via email, “to teach Muslims a lesson.” This would also explain the pattern of state security personnel failing to act decisively on warnings of mob violence and not allocating adequate forces to control the mobs.

Like past riots and pogroms, credible reports of state complicity in the violence emerged on May 14, a day after the anti-Muslim attacks. Later reporting on the ground noted that “affected people alleged that the authorities were doing little to disperse crowds when the mobs continued with the attacks going from village to village.”

Speaking to me by phone on May 15, a Colombo-based human rights lawyer told me it’s commonly believed that security personnel have been involved. Even if the rioting wasn’t clearly organized by government actors, community members have been sent yet another message that the state is not willing to protect the rights of minorities.

The country’s political situation has been in flux in recent years. President Maithripala Sirisena’s unexpected electoral defeat of the increasingly authoritarian Mahinda Rajapaksa in January 2015 ushered in a wave of optimism. Rajapaksa, who ruled from 2005 to 2015, oversaw the end of a three-decade civil war, but the fighting ended with massive Tamil civilian casualties. His administration also became increasingly corrupt and authoritarian. On the campaign trail, Sirisena offered a different and less authoritarian brand of governance.

Sirisena’s ascension was made possible by a diverse coalition. A formal coalition government in 2015 brought together the nation’s two biggest political parties, which have historically been rivals: the Sri Lanka Freedom Party and the United National Party. Yet the administration performed horribly and—following a massive political crisis late last year—is no longer in existence. Even worse, the prospect of the former president’s brother Gotabaya Rajapaksa winning a presidential victory is looking increasingly likely: He declared his candidacy on April 26, five days after the bombings.

If he were to become president—a vote is expected later this year—that would augur the recommencement of the Rajapaksa agenda. Increased nepotism and heightened authoritarianism would almost certainly follow. Human rights activists, the media, and broader elements of civil society would face greater scrutiny. The situation for numerical minorities—especially Tamils and Muslims—would be dire.

Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism has long been used as a source of political mobilization in Sri Lanka. This dogma espouses the notion that Sri Lanka is a country for Sinhalese Buddhists and that others are inferior, or worse. This toxic brand of nationalism has been used—including by Buddhist monks—to promote discrimination, hate, and violence. Tamils have suffered immensely, though Muslims have been hurt too.

There have been several anti-Muslim riots over the years, with the first dating as far back as 1915. But in the recent postwar era, violence against Muslims has become a growing problem, with riots in 2014 and 2018. Created in 2012, the Bodu Bala Sena promotes a fervent brand of Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism and a clear hatred toward Muslims. This dangerous and deeply intolerant group has used conspiracy theories and hate speech to denigrate the Muslim community (and others) and foment violence. Many people think of Buddhism as a peaceful and tolerant religion. Unfortunately, in places like Sri Lanka and Myanmar, the reality is far more complicated.

During Mahinda Rajapaksa’s tenure, it was widely believed that extremist groups like the Bodu Bala Sena had support at the highest levels of political power—particularly from Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who served as secretary to the Ministry of Defense in his brother’s administration. With Islamic terrorism now a national security issue, anti-Muslim bigotry—and violence—is likely to grow. Security concerns will be used as cover for prejudice and authoritarianism. Restrictions on mainstream media, social media platforms, and speech could become more common.

Ten years after the country’s military defeated the Tamil Tigers, the lack of accountability for wartime abuses—including alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity—remains a wound at the heart of Tamil society. Nor has the state shown any sign of properly addressing other core Tamil grievances, including the crafting of a reasonable power-sharing arrangement and other issues pertaining to land and language. Large parts of the country are still very militarized. In the historically Tamil Northern and Eastern provinces, the military remains involved in a range of civilian affairs such as agriculture, education, and tourism. The history of failing to hold perpetrators to account fuels ongoing human rights violations and perpetuates more impunity.

That is likely to continue. Arresting and prosecuting the perpetrators—all of them—associated with the recent anti-Muslim violence would be substantively and symbolically significant. Yet it’s very hard to see how there could be a proper accountability process for participants in these attacks.

The Easter bombings have further weakened the fabric of Sri Lankan society. Islamic terrorism has been added to a cauldron of ethnic and religious tension. A complex and diverse nation is creating new divisions and likely worsening long-standing ones. If the government doesn’t demonstrate that perpetrators of anti-minority violence will be held accountable, more violence—perhaps on an even greater scale—is inevitable.

Rebooting Agriculture To Provide Clean, Practical  Solutions To Sri Lanka’s Energy Crisis – II

By Chandre Dharmawardana –MAY 23, 2019

Dr. Chandre Dharmawardana

Newspaper  reports mention how the minister of Power and Energy  and the CEB engineers are trying to meet a systemic power shortage looming over Sri Lanka. The Easter Sunday carnage made everyone forget about the garve systemic problems facing Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka seems to lurch from one emergency to another in every sector, like a ship gone adrift. A May 20threport in the Island states that “CEB engineers warn of power cuts …” This is a result of not staying course with long-range power production plans when governments and their favourite financiers changed. Furthermore, the CEB  plans were  inconsistent with rising concerns on pollution and global warming. The potential of solar – and biomass energy was considered to be unimportant when the CEB energy plans were  made decades ago.

In a previous article labeled part-I that appeared in the Colombo Telegraph we examined how Solar power can provide a large part of the needed power by using floating solar panels in reservoirs already equipped with hydro-turbines and how they can be deployed to provide FIRM POWER without batteries or alternators. The proposal is to store  solar electricity (or wind generated electricity) by using the alternative energy source (be it wind or solar) for re-pumping  water back into the reservoirs. Then nearly the  equivalent amount of electricity can then be re-generated in the usual manner by the hydro-turbines. Biomass energy offers an even bigger inexpensive source of firm energy that can be made available at will.

Ailing agricultural sectors can be re-booted inexpensively to become vibrant bio-energy industries. The potential can meet Sri Lanka’s needs for decades to come, and even to sell to the Indian continent using a cable link, breaking the isolation of Sri Lanka’s power grid. 

There are mind boggling possibilities. Scientists can engineer, within the decade, whole forests with genetically modified plants that store lots more carbon than plants available today. The relevant genes are already known. Such plants can fight climate change and  also greatly increase the efficiency of  bio-energy plants 

A Really Available Bio-Energy Source 

Bio-energy  has been talked of  for decades, but with its implementation. There are, as yet  no turn-key solutions or commission-carrying businessmen. The simplest approach is to burn any kind of fast-growing wood, bamboo, bagasse etc., in high-efficiency furnaces and run generators. 

This process is “carbon-neutral” as the CO2 released is that absorbed by the plants during  growth. The flue gases are relatively free of the toxic  nitrous and sulphurous fumes found in coal-fire or diesel emissions. There is sub-micron fly ash, although minimal compared to coal. While the logistics of collecting the biomass is  big, private companies like GreenWatt in Moneragala  have set up 10 MW power plants using fast-growing Gliriicidia. CEB engineers consider these as “small potatoes”, but thousands of such plants can be set up easily in the plantation sector. 

There are several inexpensive and efficient processes for generating energy for Sri Lankan needs for ever. Here we discuss just ONE eminently practical solution that simultaneously reboots the ailing coconut sector. 

The Coconut Industry As An Energy Giant 

The industry concentrates on the coconut kernel as copra and desiccated coconut. The local householder buys coconuts for cooking. The milk is hand-squeezed inefficiently. The water, the spent kernel (‘polkudu’), the shell and the husk are wasted or used in primitive highly polluting industries (e.g., making coir, rugs) with only a minimal value addition, while the demand is unsteady.

Coconut shells are indeed used as fuel or for making activated carbon. According to Paddon and Parker (1979) the husk has some 6700 kilo Joules per nut, i.e., almost 5 KWh of energy per kilo of husk! So the energy from ten husks is roughly the same as from one litre of petrol! Only part of the heat can be converted into electricity because of the Carnot-Rankin loss to entropy. 

The water, kernel and the shells already have a good market value. So we use the husk and all waste for the energy sector. Sri Lanka produces approximately 2.5 billion nuts/year, a drop from its better days with 3 billion. Using the dry weight (following FAO data) of the husks, the 2.5 billion husks  are equivalent of about 2 million GWh per year, i.e., some 5.3 billion liters of petrol/year.

If even 20% of the husks were collected, and if the heat-to-electricity conversion efficiency is 30%, an energy yield of 0.3 billion liters of petrol, or about 150,000 GWh from the husk alone is possible. Taking the total annual power need of the country to be about 15,000 GWh, the coconut sector can readily supply ten times the energy needs of the country right now!

Sri Lanka’s ailing coir industry and allied industries  like  husk chips, coir pith (‘kohubath’) for soil remediation,’kohu’-panels, etc are simply methods of discarding valuable energy. Just as Sri Lanka throws away the coconut water, “kurumba  Komba” (used coconut), the potential of the husk too is wasted when used in traditional agriculture or rural industries.

The coconut husks are traditionally dumped in pits or submerged in cages near waterways for ‘retting’, prior to the fiber extraction by primitive methods dangerous to workers. The water  become polluted and emits bad odors; oxygen depleted effluent full of organic matter deadly to aquatic biota are a byproduct of this industry. 

Recognizing the energy potential in coconut, a different industry model must be legislated. Whole nuts should only be sparingly available in the market. Just as paddy is processed and only hulled rice is marketed, coconuts should be processed to market the kernel and shell, while the coconut water should be canned and sold. The husk is the fuel for high-efficiency burners whose heat  generates electricity. The sale of individual coconuts rather than the transformed products should be highly taxed. Only those who grow coconut in their home gardens for private use can have the luxury of consuming coconuts in the traditional way. A higher price for husks will tempt everyone to sell their husks to the power company. The present ‘waste tariff’ on husks must be lifted and the power industry be given a 20-year tax credit. There can be power hundreds of companies in large coconut estates. 

So we have no need for coal or liquified gas or ransoming Sri Lanka’s sovereignty to foreign vendors, or destroying the environment, in order to be self-sufficient in energy. Similarly, mini-hydro companies should be banned as they render little and cause much ecological damage. No oil or gas exploration in the neighbouring seas should be allowed as it is intensely environmentally damaging. It will further threaten the nation’s sovereignty as has happened to many small oil-rich nations now in the grip of powerful consortia.  

The coconut  acreage need not increase (i.e., no habitat loss) as the current husk supply far exceeds the needs for energy production which can start within months rather than years. Those working in the ailing coir and allied industries should be absorbed into the energy sector. The ash from burning coconut husk is rich in potassium, phosphorous and other minerals.

Husk ash mixed with optimal amounts of humus and urea makes a good fertilizer. However, controls on metal toxins against  bio-accumulation are needed just as with organic fertilizers. The  ash is useful in the construction industry, e.g., for sand mixes, making bricks or paving stones.

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Memory and the Security State

AMALINI DE SAYRAH-05/23/2019

The sun was scorching at the Mullivaikkal memorial grounds as people gathered to remember loved ones and Tamil civilians killed during the war that came to an end on May 18th 2009. Lines of lamps and young coconut plants were laid out in lines in the soft sand. Surviving family members, loved ones and members of the community stood next to them. Each placed flowers at the base of the lamp and stuck joss sticks into the sand next to photos of their lost loved ones.

These memorial grounds are located squarely within what the Sri Lankan Army designated as the third and final No Fire Zone on the 8th of May 2009. In this map, they fall close to the point labelled Vellamullivaikkal. The No Fire Zone came under continuous fire from the Army, according to witnesses from within the area.  This has been flatly denied by the government, though it has drawn condemnation from rights organisations internationally.

Google Earth imagery from the 24th of May 2009 shows several shelters – some still standing, and others destroyed – in this area.

At 10.30am, each individual lights a lamp, in memory of the many lives lost during the fighting. The number of civilian casualties during the last stages remains uncertain. Official government statements put the toll at a mere 9000 while a report commission by then-UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon record 40000 deaths. The Catholic Diocese of Mannar noted in 2011 that 146,679 people still remain unaccounted for.

When the individual lamps are burning, a symbolic flame is lit on a memorial of two blood-stained hands rising towards the sky. The crowd in attendance then lines up to offer flowers and prayers at this plinth.

This memorial is one of two physical civilian memorials in the area. The other is located not far away, picturing a man carrying an injured woman, with a young child next to them. The surrounding region is dotted with several war monuments erected by the state, to glorify the ‘victory’ of the armed forces. The loss of civilian life during the war is not accounted for in any of these monuments.

Individuals who were leaving after the memorial’s proceedings ended were met at the entrance by a small-open backed lorry, filled with large metal cooking vats. Young men spooned congee out of this and into plastic bags for the people to take home. It was also being distributed to individuals to be eaten at the site. ‘Mullivaikkal Congee’, a civil society initiative for the ten-year memorial, was meant to remember the staple diet of civilians trapped in the conflict area and No-Fire Zones at the end of the war. The dish made of rice, water and salt or sugar was cooked by civilians, or cooked and distributed to them by the LTTE, and the easiest thing to make while in such circumstances.

Tamil activists based in the Northern Province note that there was a drop in attendance between the memorials held last year and in this year; where in 2018 the crowd had run past the boundary of the grounds, roughly only a quarter attended this year, with lamps set up outnumbering the actual attendees.

A key reason for this, they note is the increased security presence in the Mullaitivu area. In the wake of the Easter Sunday Attacks, security was ramped up islandwide, with more police checkpoints on key routes. Between Anuradhapura town and the memorial grounds, one passes through eight checkpoints run by the Police and the military.

Speaking on community plans to hold memorials for the dead in the North and East, Army Commander Lieutenant General Mahesh Senanayake said that “it is their right to commemorate their loved ones, and we encourage them to hold such ceremonies” adding that prevailing Emergency Regulations will not affect commemorations.

In the 24 hours before the memorial was to take place, three new checkpoints were established in Valayanmadam, Mathalan, and at the southern end of the Vadduvakal bridge, that cuts through the Nandikadal lagoon. These are all key routes into Mullivaikkal. At the checkpoint at the Vadduvakal bridge, names and identity card numbers of all individuals passing through were being recorded.

Whether the police and army were intending to keep records of all those present at the memorial is unknown. However activists feel that these served as an intimidation tactic, deterring people from attending as they were afraid of the repercussions.

Civilian memorial activities have in the past been met with legal injunctions; authorities were concerned they were a threat to national security, having assumed that the memorial was for dead LTTE cadres. Civilians attending May 18th memorials have been called in for questioning.

While many would justify the presence of these checkpoints in the interest of national security, it is important to consider the context of the post-war North and how it differs from the increasing security presence in other parts of the country. A 2017 report by the Adayaalam Centre for Policy Research notes that;

‘Even at the lower end of the spectrum, a very conservative estimate of the Sri Lankan Army’s presence in Mullaitivu District is 60,000 personnel – 1 soldier for every 2 civilians – making it one of the most heavily militarised regions in the world. This presence is grossly disproportionate to the country as a whole – 25% of the Sri Lankan Army is deployed in a district comprising 0.6% of the Sri Lankan population.’

Militarisation in the Mullaitivu district in particular has remained high in the last ten years. Any additional military and security officials simply add to this already outsized presence in a vulnerable area.

May 18th is a day of mourning for the individuals who attended, the individuals who weren’t able to attend, and the Sri Lankan Tamil community across the globe. Community memorials, which were banned during the Rajapaksa regime, serve as important spaces both for grief and for community gathering. Their memorialisation of the civilians who passed away has been met with legal injunctions on the grounds that they were a threat to national security, with authorities mistakenly assuming they were commemorations of LTTE cadres killed in combat. This occurred without Emergency Regulations or a State of Emergency in place.

Ten years after the war came to an end, the security measures introduced in the last month have only served to put residents of the area, and indeed the entire Tamil community living in the North and East, under increased scrutiny.

Editor’s Note: Read ‘Victory over Remembrance: A day of division’ and ‘Memorialisation on May 18th: From Politicisation to Peoplisation‘