{"id":78681,"date":"2022-07-22T00:27:09","date_gmt":"2022-07-22T04:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=78681"},"modified":"2022-07-22T18:13:12","modified_gmt":"2022-07-22T22:13:12","slug":"thousands-of-police-and-troops-armed-with-riot-gear-attack-protest-venue-known-as-gota-go-gama-beating-protesters-destroying-tents-and-arresting-nine-people-more-than-50-people-injured-and-thr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=78681","title":{"rendered":"Thousands of police and troops armed with riot gear attack protest venue known as Gota Go Gama, beating protesters, destroying tents and arresting nine people. More than 50 people injured and three people hospitalized in the attack, according to St John Ambulance"},"content":{"rendered":"

By
\nHannah Ellis-Petersen in Colombo<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sri Lankan security forces have carried out a violent early morning raid on the main anti-government protest camp in Colombo, beating protesters, destroying tents and arresting nine people.<\/p>\n

Friday\u2019s raid saw thousands of police and troops armed with riot gear descend on the protest camp, known as Gota Go Gama, where hundreds of people have been living for over three months. More than 50 people were injured and three people were sent to hospital in the attack, according to St John Ambulance volunteers at the scene.<\/p>\n

The crackdown came a day after Ranil Wickremesinghe, who is an unpopular figure, was sworn in as Sri Lanka\u2019s new president following the toppling of president Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who was forced to flee the country amid huge public anger.<\/p>\n

According to those present for the raid, armed military officers in black uniforms began violently clearing tents close to the Presidential Secretariat building, the offices of the president which have been occupied by protesters since an anti-government protest last week.<\/p>\n

Nine people were arrested, a police spokesperson said, adding that the protesters had \u201cno legal right to hold the area\u201d.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The protest groups had announced they would be peacefully handing back the building back to the government on Friday afternoon, but instead the government took it back by force.<\/p>\n

The action appeared to be a show of might by the newly elected Wickremesinghe, who is seen to occupy a weak political position and is facing heavy public pressure to step down. On the day he was elected president by MPs in a secret parliamentary ballot, Wickremesinghe had issued a warning to the protesters, who he had previously decried as infiltrated by \u201cfascists\u201d and \u201cextremists\u201d.
\n\u201cIf you try to topple the government, occupy the president\u2019s office and the prime minister\u2019s office, that is not democracy, it is against the law,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The attack is likely to deepen public mistrust in Wickremesinghe\u2019s government which is already seen as having no legitimacy. One of Wickremesinghe\u2019s first actions as president was to declare a state of emergency that gave sweeping powers to armed forces and the police to arrest and detain suspects for long periods without being charged.<\/p>\n

Among those hurt in Friday\u2019s pre-dawn raid was Chanu Nimesha, 47, whose body was covered in bruises and welts from where she was hit and kicked by military officers. She described being asleep in her tent when she heard an announcement over loudspeakers and then screams as people began to be beaten by security forces ripping up their tents.
\n\u201cI was hiding behind another tent but they saw me and they started brutally beating me,\u201d said Nimesha. \u201cThe officers were saying \u2018take the bitch out\u2019, \u2018kick her\u2019 and \u2018take her in\u2019. I thought I was going to die.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nimesha said she fought back. \u201cI was kicking and biting them to resist and then I ran away before they could arrest me,\u201d she said. \u201cI was just in my nightdress but I managed to run away to some tents they weren\u2019t attacking. But then the officers came here and they beat me again here, they trying to arrest me. They kept saying \u2018we need to take the bitch in\u2019 but I was resisting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite her injuries, Nimesha said she was too worried about going to hospital in case she was reported to police and arrested.
\nSahan Weerawaradhana, 26, was also badly beaten by military as he tried to enter the camp on Thursday night. He said officers had seized his friend\u2019s phone and begun deleting video footage she was taking of the scene, and then began assaulting him. His body was covered in bruises and his face and lip were swollen from the attack.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey grabbed me and started brutally beating me with wooden sticks, kicking me with their boots, and were hitting me with the back of their guns,\u201d said Weerawaradhana.<\/p>\n

He said the officers then took him away and kept him in custody for four hours. \u201cThey were punishing us, they made us stay in these squat military positions for hours which was torture,\u201d said Weerawaradhana. \u201cI was just thinking shame on them. I gave food to the military officers every day in this camp, we all did that because we don\u2019t want violence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several journalists, including one from the BBC, were beaten by officers. The Bar Association of Sri Lanka, the main lawyers\u2019 body in the country, confirmed that least two lawyers were assaulted when they went to the protest site to offer their counsel, and one lawyer was taken into custody. Its statement on Friday said the used of the armed forces against civilians was \u201cdespicable and will have serious consequences on our country\u2019s social, economic and political stability\u201d.<\/p>\n

Akila Aluwatte, one of the lawyers who came down to the scene, said the incident had been a \u201cviolation of human rights. Protesters had announced they would peacefully vacate the building but instead the authorities have forcefully taken it and brutally beaten people up.\u201d
\nMeenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch, condemned the raid as a \u201cvengeful abuse of emergency powers under the executive presidency to punish those that had criticised the failures of the Rajapaksa administration- perhaps an act of loyalty to the party that backed his appointment\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, who came to collect accounts from the scene in the aftermath, said it was \u201ca total violation of the fundamental rights of the people by the executive\u201d.<\/p>\n

There was also widespread condemnation from the diplomatic community, including the US ambassador, Julie Chung who said she was \u201cdeeply concerned about actions taken against protestors at Galle Face in the middle of the night.\u201d She later met with Wickremesinghe to express what she described as her \u201cgrave concern over the unnecessary and deeply troubling escalation of violence against protesters.\u201d<\/p>\n

No comment was given from Wickremesinghe\u2019s government on the raid. On Friday morning after it took place Dinesh Gunawardena, who is a longtime ally of the Rajapaksa family and old school friend of Wickremesinghe\u2019s, was sworn in as the new prime minister.<\/p>\n

Despite promises to form a unity, cross-party government, it was also announced that the cabinet under president Wickremesinghe would remain almost exactly the same as under President Rajapaksa, dominated by MPs from the Rajapaksa\u2019s ruling party, further fuelling concerns that this new regime would prove no different from the last.<\/p>\n

In the remaining tents of Gota Go Gama, the mood was one of fear and rage. Navoda Bennett, 20, a resident of the camp since April, described how, as news spread that they were under attack, protesters had gathered all the vulnerable people living in the camp and formed a protective circle around them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were terrified,\u201d she said. \u201cThere were babies, children, pregnant mothers, disabled people, a lot of people who could not fend for themselves. People started running this way screaming, many of them had been badly beaten. There were only about 150 people left here and maybe 2,000 military officers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asiri Perera, another resident of the camp, said the action made it clear \u201cwe are now living in a police state.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRanil needed to prove his power,\u201d he said. \u201cHe doesn\u2019t have the voters\u2019 support so he wanted to show to all the politicians and the army that he is strong. It\u2019s devastating because we got rid of Gotabaya Rajapaksa, we thought we were making progress for Sri Lanka, but we have ended up in the same place again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Courtesy:The Guardian<\/em><\/p>\n

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

By Hannah Ellis-Petersen in Colombo Sri Lankan security forces have carried out a violent early morning raid on the main anti-government protest camp in Colombo, beating protesters, destroying tents and arresting nine people. Friday\u2019s raid saw thousands of police and troops armed with riot gear descend on the protest camp, known as Gota Go Gama, …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Thousands of police and troops armed with riot gear attack protest venue known as Gota Go Gama, beating protesters, destroying tents and arresting nine people. More than 50 people injured and three people hospitalized in the attack, according to St John Ambulance’ »<\/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\/78681"}],"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=78681"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78681\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78683,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78681\/revisions\/78683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=78681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=78681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=78681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}