By Dharisha Bastians in Weliweriya
- A battle for clean water takes a deadly turn, making a small town in Gampaha look like a war-zone the morning after residents clash with military personnel
Bloody boot prints, now chalked off by police forensic teams, mark the side doorways to St. Anthony’s Parish in Weliweriya. The church walls are pockmarked with bullets. Lampshades in the parish garden have been shattered. Near the grotto at the back of the church, a large black pole lies on the grass.
Residents in this Western Province town claim the military cracked down on a demonstration demanding clean water, using brutal force on Thursday night.
The military was deployed after attempts by the police to disperse protesting crowds blocking the main Colombo-Kandy road failed, officials say. Clashes ensued between soldiers wearing flak jackets and carrying assault rifles, claiming at least one fatality according to official hospital estimates. Dozens more have been injured.
Weliweriya residents scoff at these statistics, claiming that at least three more people had been killed in Thursday’s clashes, although not all casualties were at the Gampaha District Hospital.
12 security forces personnel, including the Officer in Charge of the Weliweriya Police Station were also injured in the clashes.
Fleeing advancing troops they claim were firing live ammunition into the crowd, demonstrators flooded the parish grounds seeking sanctuary. The power went off at about 9 p.m. A short while later, the refuge seekers claim they witnessed the terrifying sight of black uniformed armed personnel, their faces masked, storming into the church grounds. “They jumped over the walls and ran in here firing,” residents tell visiting journalists, pointing to bullet marks on the church doorways and pillars. The church remained packed with people who had taken sanctuary there the previous night.
Police forensic teams are onsite, numbering each bullet mark for evidence. Rodrigo, an eyewitness to the assault inside the church premises, walks around the parish grounds with the police teams, pointing out evidence of the previous night’s terror. “I watched as they pulled people out of the church and assaulted them with their weapons and guns. They pulled one group of men out and made them kneel in front of the grotto. Then they assaulted them with these black poles,” he said, pointing to the grass. “This is what they call the use of ‘minimum force’.”
The almost hysterical residents in the beleaguered town are accusing the security forces of terrible things. “They fired tear gas at us to make us disperse and then they shot those who were fleeing,” one Weliweriya resident told Daily FT on condition of anonymity fearing reprisals.
Residents admit that when the soldiers fired at them, they attacked advancing troops with stones and bottles. “What else is an unarmed civilian to do in the face of gunfire? We have no weapons. So we retaliated with stones,” one young demonstrator admitted.
Seven demonstrators arrested and released on bail at the behest of St. Anthony’s Parish Priest Fr. Laksiri Nonis yesterday, arrived at the church looking bruised and bloody.
The priest tries to use the release of the seven residents to urge the crowds still gathered inside the parish grounds to return to their homes. “The police are telling us that you all remaining here is obstructing their ability to restore law and order. So please, I urge you, go back to your homes now peacefully, nothing will happen to you,” he said.
Rodrigo says it is possible people are afraid to return home after military personnel performed a sweep of residences in the neighbourhood and assaulted suspected demonstrators.
The morning after the clashes that raged from 5 p.m. to midnight, a deathly stillness had descended over the Weliweriya town. Charred barricades litter the main New Kandy Road and the small lanes off the highway. Shops and businesses remained shut as police teams swept the area for evidence. Empty rounds of ammunition were being numbered as evidence along the road. Until noon, the New Kandy Road remained closed to vehicular traffic. The Government continues to deploy large numbers of military personnel and armoured vehicles in the area.
Residents shake their head in disbelief about the brute force used to quell a protest they say was only about a demand for water. “We asked for water tanks, they sent us war tanks instead,” one woman whose entire family is in hospital sayid. “This is in no way a proportionate response.”
Ground water contamination in Weliweriya, Gampaha brought residents of some 10 villages in the area out onto the streets a few days ago, led by a Chief Monk of a temple in the area. Residents in the area have implicated a glove making plant known as Dipped Products PLC, a subsidiary of the Hayleys Group, in the contamination crisis, although the company has strongly denied the claims. So far, there has been no testing to prove the source of the ground water contamination.
Following discussions with the factory management and residents at the Defence Ministry on Thursday evening, the Government ordered the temporary shutdown of the factory. Thus far, no official testing has been performed to determine the cause of the contamination. The first test results will only be released in about 10 days, according to Government estimates. But even high officials like Western Province Senior DIG Anura Senanayake admit that there is something seriously wrong with the ground water in the area.
Residents say the water when consumed makes their mouths burn and causes smarting when it comes into contact with their skin. Many Rathupaswela and Weliweriya residents have privately had the water in their wells tested for contaminants. “In many cases, the pH level of the water is 3 or 4 which means it is unsuitable for drinking. Is it not reasonable for us to demand remedial measures?” they claim.
The Government has been providing water to the surrounding villages for several days now. There are no pipe-borne water facilities in the area. The residents are demanding that the Government provides this facility and removes the factory from its current location to restore the groundwater in the area to pre-pollution standard.
Among the shell-shocked villagers still gathered at the St. Anthony’s church, there is a profound sense of disillusionment. The patriotic community stood stoically behind the country’s armed forces during the final phase of the conflict. They say they conducted Bodhi poojas and blood drives for security forces personnel fighting the LTTE in the north. But suddenly, there is a great deal of talk about human rights within the group that says it has lost complete faith in the military.
“Today for the first time, we understand what the suffering of the Tamil must have been. If they can kill people asking for water, the same people who supported and respected them, we can only imagine their conduct during the war in the north,” said a young man who had taken part in the protest.
“They go to the world and talk about human rights. If they respect human rights, what kind of response is this to an innocent demonstration demanding clean water?” they ask.
The villagers say they had lost faith in the police a long time ago. But the military had always been above reproach.
“They didn’t behave like war heroes last night,” they tell reporters, in voices filled with shock. “These were thugs.”
..............................................................................................................
Troublesome outsiders not villagers says top cop
Senior DIG for the Western Province Anura Senanayake, who was in Weliweriya yesterday, charged that the troublesome demonstrators had not been residents of the surrounding villages. Those villagers had cheered loudly at the news of a breakthrough during discussions at the Defence Ministry where officials had decided to temporarily shut down the factory, he said.
“These were troublemakers from elsewhere. Nobody in the village recognised them, these were people who were trying to take advantage of the situation, provoking the security forces to react,” DIG Senanayake said.
He said that although the protestors had been blocking a main road on Thursday, the police had been as gentle as possible, because the residents’ grievances were genuine. “The people of these villages honestly came out because they couldn’t take it anymore. I understand that. Our heart is with them,” he said in front of the house of Akila Dinesh, who was killed in the clashes.
DIG Senanayake said it was unfortunate that the breakthrough to resolve the water crisis had been sullied by the events of Thursday night.
“A full investigation will be conducted into the alleged firing and casualties,” he said, adding that the Colombo Crimes Division had taken charge of the inquiry.
Meanwhile, the Government would spare no expense to conduct the funeral ceremony of the fallen 17-year-old, he pledged.
..............................................................................................................
Military to conduct internal inquiry
Military Spokesman Brigadier Ruwan Wanigasooriya said yesterday that the Sri Lanka Army would extend its fullest support to investigations being conducted by the police into Thursday night’s clashes in Weliweriya and would also conduct its own internal inquiry into the incident.
Brigadier Wanigasooriya said that the army never targeted civilians. “There was some damage and casualties because the troops had to engage with a group of persons carrying petrol bombs and attacking the soldiers with bottles,” the Brigadier said.
He said that peace had almost completely been restored in the area and a large contingent of troops had already been removed from the town. “Only a few remain overnight but they will also be removed by Friday,” he said yesterday.
..............................................................................................................
The crossfire fatality
17-year-old Akila Dinesh, who succumbed to his injuries late Thursday, joins a growing tally of unarmed civilian fatalities every time the Government deploys armed forces personnel to disperse a public demonstration.
The incident is the third since 2011, when live ammunition has been used to dispel public demonstrations. In 2011, an apparel factory worker was shot dead during a demonstration against a State pension fund and in February last year, Chilaw fisherman Anthony Fernando who was killed during a fishing community protest about rising fuel prices.
Akila was never part of the protest, his neighbours and family claim, he was just caught in the crossfire when he was returning home from classes.
Politicians and police and military top brass flooded the victim’s home yesterday. Buddhist priests from the area planned funeral arrangements with visiting Western Province Senior DIG Anura Senanayake.
“This boy’s final rites will be fully provided for by the Government,” the DIG said. “He will be given the best possible funeral.”
Huddled inside Akila’s house, some distance from politicos and police officials, his relatives weep. “Why are they here,” asked Manel Jayawardane, the grandmother who raised the boy. “Can they bring Akila back? There is nothing else they can do for us. Ask them to bring him back if they can.”
