BBS vows to continue fight against “Muslim extremism”

Wednesday, 2 July 2014 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Denies alleged links with Defence Secretary; says anyone can arrest BBS members but it won’t solve problem
Reiterates claim it didn’t incite violence in Aluthgama, level serious charges against Beruwala
Challenges Ranil to expose culprits; blames Opposition and select Ministers; claims intl. conspiracy afoot

By Chamitha Kuruppu The Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) yesterday reiterated it would continue to fight against Muslim extremism, which it said was an emerging threat to the country’s stability, and added that it would not stop raising its voice against such organisations. Addressing the media, the controversial organisation also denied alleged links with the Defence Secretary, stressing that the BBS did not receive any backing from Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

BBS Chief Executive Officer and Media Spokesman Dilantha Vithanage said that there was an ongoing conspiracy by the UNP, a top powerful embassy in Colombo and some Muslim extremist groups. He also asserted that BBS had always tried to maintain peace and stability in the country and the BBS has been struggling during the past two weeks to maintain peace in this country. “If we wanted to attack innocent Muslims, we could have avoided our presence and we wouldn’t have gone there. We could have easily allowed clashes between Muslims and Sinhalese, but we intervened because we wanted to maintain peace in this country,” Vithanage said. “What GnanasaraThero said on that day was that if Muslims attack our clergy we are compelled to boycott Muslim businesses. But what was reported to the outside world was totally opposite to what he said. We totally criticise this and need to mention that this is an international conspiracy,” he added. “If the consequences of the violence could be mitigated by arresting BoduBalaSena General Secretary Ven. Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara Thero or members of the BBS, then they could arrest him today, but that is not the answer; that will not solve the issue,” Vithanage told the media. Vithanage and Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara Thero also alleged that it was Ministers RajithaSenarathne and Vasudeva Nanayakkara and members of the Opposition including Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe and Mangala Samaraweera who tried to put the blame on the BBS over the recent clashes that occurred in Aluthgama without finding the root cause of the incident. Vithanage challenged Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe to reveal the names of the people behind the Aluthgama clashes. Meanwhile, the Head of the Education and Research Section of the BBS said that if the Government wanted to arrest Gnanasara Thero or any member of the BBS, then it should turn all the buildings of this country into prisons and all the coconuts trees to gallows, adding that “there are thousands willing to go to prison if Gnanasara Thero is arrested”. Vithanage denying the widely-discussed alleged links of the BBS with Gotabaya Rajapaksa said the Galle ceremony attended by the Defence Secretary as Chief Guest was a project by Kirama Wimalajothi Thero and had no connection with the BBS. According to Vithanage, a German national had donated the building to the BBS but the organisation had requested that it be given to the Buddhist Cultural Centre to run as a training institute. “Just because he (Gotabaya Rajapaksa) attended that function, you can’t say he is behind us,” Vithanage said. He also charged that Beruwala was a terrorist hotspot, that there had been several deaths annually due to clashes among the Muslims and that there was a terrorist training centre in Beruwala.

Ranil draws nexus between Government and BBS

Aluthgama media blackout to cover Government sins: Ranil

Says Govt. teams colluded to take BBS to Aluthgama

Claims Govt. sent letters to print and electronic media banning Aluthgama coverage

Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe yesterday hit out against the Government’s unofficial media blackout of the Aluthgama religious violence and charged that the regime was complicit in permitting the Bodu Bala Sena rally in the area to go ahead on 15 June. During a meeting with media activists and journalists at his Jawatte office yesterday, Wickremesinghe claimed that the Government had issued letters to all print and electronic media about reporting on the communal clashes in the two southern towns. “The letters said that if print media did not comply, lawsuits would be filed and in the case of electronic media, broadcasting licences would be revoked,” the Opposition Leader told the journalists and activists. Wickremesinghe went on to say that journalists and editors were aware of how to report incidents like the clashes in Aluthgama in a sensitive manner, so as not to incite further tensions. “This censorship was not to maintain the peace, it was to cover the Government’s sins,” he charged. The Opposition Leader claimed that certain Government teams had colluded to send the Bodu Bala Sena group into the Aluthgama area on 15 June, before the clashes erupted. “It was filth that was spoken about at that rally, not Buddhism,” Wickremesinghe said in his strongly-worded remarks. He said that the Government had done everything in its power to prevent news of the massive damage caused by the violence to life and property, but in the meanwhile it had ensured the Bodu Bala Sena got ample space to air its views in the media. The Opposition Leader claimed the Government was aiming to portray an assault on a Buddhist monk as being the reason for the clashes, but this was in fact not the case. “The Government tries to portray that the Sinhalese people of the area had been angered by the assault on the monk. But it was not the Sinhalese of Dharga Town who engaged in the violence that night, it was outsiders,” he asserted. (DB)