{"id":55501,"date":"2017-09-27T09:18:31","date_gmt":"2017-09-27T13:18:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=55501"},"modified":"2017-09-27T10:18:47","modified_gmt":"2017-09-27T14:18:47","slug":"govt-condemns-buddhist-monks-who-attacked-rohingya-refugeesacted-like-animals-says-rajitha-senaratne-thugs-in-robes-says-mangala-samaraweera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=55501","title":{"rendered":"Govt Condemns Buddhist Monks Who Attacked Rohingya Refugees:’Acted Like Animals” says Rajitha Senaratne-“thugs in Robes” says Mangala Samaraweera"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sri Lanka’s government Wednesday said a handful of Buddhist monks behaved like animals when they led a mob attack against Rohingya refugees, including 16 small children and seven women.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cabinet spokesman Rajitha Senaratne said the government condemned in the strongest possible terms the Tuesday’s storming of a UN safe house where 31 Rohingya refugees were sheltering at Mount Lavinia.<\/p>\n

“As a Buddhist I am ashamed at what happened,” Senaratne told reporters.<\/p>\n

“Mothers carrying very young children were forced out…,” he said. “These monks who led the attack are not Buddhists, they acted like animals\u2026 (thirisan)”<\/p>\n

The mob broke down the gates of the safe house and smashed windows and furniture as frightened refugees huddled together upstairs.<\/p>\n

There were no reports of casualties among the refugees, who were later taken to another location, but two police officers were wounded and admitted to hospital.<\/p>\n

Senaratne said police had been ordered to take disciplinary action against officers found to have failed to control the mob.<\/p>\n

“This is not what the Buddha taught. We have to show compassion to these refugees,” he said.<\/p>\n

Media Minister Mangala Samaraweera joined the condemnation by issuing a special statement slamming the ultra nationalist monks who led the attack as “thugs in robes.”<\/p>\n

“I condemn these actions not only as the minister in charge of media, I am also condemning it as a Buddhist, a Buddhist who is very proud of the fact that Buddhism is a religion of non-violence and compassion,” Samaraweera said.<\/p>\n

He urged the acting Inspector-General Chandana Wickramaratne to take stern action against those involved in the violence.<\/p>\n

Sri Lanka’s extremist Buddhist monks have close links with their ultra-nationalist counterparts in Myanmar. Both have been accused of orchestrating violence against minority Muslims in the two countries.<\/p>\n

One of the monks who stormed the building posted a video on Facebook filmed by his radical group Sinhale Jathika Balamuluwa (Sinhalese National Force) as he urged others to join him and smash the premises.<\/p>\n

“These are Rohingya terrorists who killed Buddhist monks in Myanmar,” the monk said in his live commentary, pointing to Rohingya mothers with small children in their arms.<\/p>\n

The 31 Rohingya refugees were rescued by the Sri Lankan navy five months ago after they were found drifting in a boat off the island’s northern coast<\/p>\n

They had been living in India for several years before leaving a refugee camp in Tamil Nadu state.<\/p>\n

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees expressed alarm over Tuesday’s attack and urged Sri Lankans to show empathy for civilians fleeing persecution and violence.<\/p>\n

Almost half a million Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar for Bangladesh since August 25.<\/p>\n

They have been the target of decades of state-backed persecution and discrimination in the mainly Buddhist country, where many view them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.<\/p>\n

Courtesy:ECONOMYNEXT<\/em><\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sri Lanka’s government Wednesday said a handful of Buddhist monks behaved like animals when they led a mob attack against Rohingya refugees, including 16 small children and seven women. Cabinet spokesman Rajitha Senaratne said the government condemned in the strongest possible terms the Tuesday’s storming of a UN safe house where 31 Rohingya refugees were …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Govt Condemns Buddhist Monks Who Attacked Rohingya Refugees:’Acted Like Animals” says Rajitha Senaratne-“thugs in Robes” says Mangala Samaraweera’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55501"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=55501"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55501\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55502,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55501\/revisions\/55502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=55501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=55501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=55501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}