Fireworks in Cabinet over Aluthgama riots

Saturday, 21 June 2014 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Muslim ministers want Bodu Bala Sena banned.
Champika defends Bodu Bala Sena.
President claims banning BBS would make hardline monks ‘heroes’.

Discussions during the weekly Cabinet meeting got heated on Thursday (19) with Muslim Ministers Rauff Hakeem and Rishard Bathiudeen engaging in fierce arguments with President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the JHU. The Muslim ministers were demanding that the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) be banned for inciting racial and religious hatred and violence and that the Government takes action against the group’s General Secretary, Gala-godaaththe Gnanasara Thero, the Daily FT learns. According to highly-placed ministerial sources, Hakeem and Bathiudeen claimed that the monk’s fiery speech laced with derogatory remarks against Muslims had incited the religious riots in Aluthgama last Sunday that left four people dead, scores injured and resulted in extensive damage to property, most of it belonging to the Muslim community. JHU Minister Cha-mpika Ranawaka argued strongly against banning the Bodu Bala Sena alone, and said Sunday’s violence could not be attributed directly to the group or its rally. Minister Bathiudeen also told President Rajapaksa that Sri Lanka’s worst communal violence since 1983 had happened under the watch of the current Government, the sources said. According to senior cabinet ministers, the arguments had been some of the worst experienced during the weekly meetings. President Rajapaksa, who was in Bolivia during the Aluthgama and Beruwala riots, had returned to Colombo early Wednesday and was chairing the Cabinet meet, the sources added. Repeated calls by the two Muslim Ministers for a proscription of a ban on the BBS had been refused, with President Rajapaksa saying a proscription would turn the hardline monks into ‘heroes,’ the ministerial sources said.