Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, the Archbishop of Colombo, has appealed to the international community to open an inquiry into the country’s newly formed government after armed police and military attacked peaceful protesters. The attack occurred on Friday last week, less than 24 hours after the new president, Ranil Wickremesinghe, was sworn in.
Cardinal Ranjith condemned the attack on the “beloved” citizens of Sri Lanka, in which security forces raided the main anti-government protest camp in the capital.
The cardinal said that the unarmed young people, even after announcing that they were preparing to leave the site, were attacked by an "unprovoked" group of policemen and soldiers. Some were injured and others were arrested, noted the Cardinal, “completely condemning” the “high-handed action of the president”.
President Wickremesinghe had been in power for less than 24 hours at the time of the attack, winning 134 votes in parliament, after former prime minister Gotabaya Rajapaksa was ousted.
“This is very sad”, stated the Cardinal, “because the president became president only on the vote of the parliamentarians, and because he came saying that he would protect the constitution”. Instead, continued the cardinal, “he has acted against the basic right of the people to protest, which is a democratic right, which was exercised non-violently by the youth”.
Describing the president’s actions as completely contradictory to what he publicly announced and to what his duty as president of the country is, Cardinal Ranjith added that the parliament does not represent the majority of the people and that the president is trying to "dictate terms and force himself on the people with the use of thuggery and oppression is unacceptable”.
“We hold the president responsible for any future disaster that might come as a result of his actions,” the cardinal warned.
The suffering people of Sri Lanka, who with unemployment and a lack of basic necessities to live with dignity had protested against this reality, peacefully demanding change, only to be attacked, he said. He demanding that an inquiry be opened into the violence and that those guilty be held responsible.
Cardinal Ranjith asked that should the government fail to open an inquiry, members of international human rights organisations should do so instead. “To attack the very same people whose protests lead to this change is like kicking the ladder after one reaches the top”, concluded the cardinal, with reference to the way Wickremesinghe, an unelected parliamentarian and ally of the former president, came to power.
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