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Government-backed thugs gunned down two members of the opposition
Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) at a political meeting on June 15. The
murders are part of the ruthless, anti-democratic methods being used to
stifle any opposition to the government’s imposition of austerity
measures dictated by the International Monetary Fund.
A group of
eight to ten thugs arrived on motorbikes, armed with T-56 weapons, and
opened fire on a JVP campaign meeting at Katuwana in the Hambantota
district. The gunmen killed Edirimannage Malani, 51, a mother of three,
and Nimantha Heshan, 18, a carpenter, and injured more than a dozen
others.
A JVP provincial councillor was addressing the local
“pocket meeting” of about 80 people as part of the party’s 45-day
national campaign against government measures that have led to sharply
rising prices for essential items including food. It is a desperate
attempt on the JVP’s part to boost its sagging base of support.
The
JVP supported the election of President Mahinda Rajapakse in November
2005 and had previously been part of a ruling coalition with his Sri
Lanka Freedom Party. The party, however, went into opposition and has
since split twice—a group broke away and joined the Rajapakse government
in 2008, and this year another faction split to form the Frontline
Socialist Party (FSP).
Neither the JVP nor any of its breakaways
represent socialism, but are based on a combination of Sinhala
extremism and empty populist promises. All of them backed Rajapakse’s
ruthless communal war against the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil
Eelam (LTTE). Both the JVP and FSP are seeking to exploit the widespread
popular anger over deteriorating living standards and the government’s
deepening attacks on democratic rights.
The Rajapakse
government, however, cannot tolerate any, even limited, political
opposition. The attack in Katuwana is particularly significant as it is
President Rajapakse’s hometown.
As well as firing at the crowd,
the thugs also severely beat up those in attendance, and destroyed their
vehicles and property. The attack continued for almost half an hour,
but the police did not intervene even though the local police station
was less than three kilometres away. The police ignored phone calls from
wounded victims and did not arrive on the scene for more than two
hours.
The delay points to police connivance in the violence,
allowing the criminals plenty of time to escape. The area is a
designated High Security Zone in the president’s home town and is always
heavily guarded by police, Special Task Force (STF) and army units. No
one could flee the scene of such a crime without the backing of the
security forces.
Within hours of the shootings, before any
investigation had begun, the director general of the Media Centre for
National Security, Lakshman Hulugalle, issued a statement asserting that
the incident resulted from a clash between two JVP factions. This claim
was flatly rejected by the JVP and the FSP. In all previous such
attacks, the government has made similar claims, in a crude attempt to
disguise its role.
Despite eyewitnesses identifying some of the
gunmen, the inspector general of police told a press conference that he
needed more evidence to make any arrests. When a journalist pointed out
that one of those involved was the subject of several arrest warrants
for previous crimes, he cynically asked the public to provide
information on where the wanted man was hiding.
Fearing protests
at the victims’ funerals, the police obtained a court order banning
marches, the hoisting of black flags, the distribution of leaflets, the
pasting of posters and the display of banners in the area. Undeterred,
thousands of people attended the funerals, held amid tight security.
Widespread
anger over the cold-blooded attack on a political gathering made it
impossible for the police to ignore the crime. Normally in case of
crimes by government-sponsored thugs, the police do nothing and simply
declare that “investigations continue”.
This time, however, the
police were forced to produce the main suspect, Gamage Amarasiri, who
surrendered to the Thangalla High Court on June 19. According to media
reports, Amarasiri is an underworld gangster with close political
connections to some local government members.
In court, Judge
Chandrasena Rajapaksha said more than 100 arrest warrants had been
issued against Amarasiri, “but police never arrested him.” The
mainstream media reported this as a “shocking disclosure”. Actually,
this record illustrates how the so-called law enforcement agencies
routinely protect the pro-government thugs.
The apparent use of
such gangsters is just part of the police state apparatus built up by
the government, with the backing of all the establishment parties,
including the JVP, during the civil war against the LTTE. Now the
government is using similar measures not only against opposition
parties, but against working class opposition to its austerity program.
Last
June, when Free Trade Zone (FTZ) workers agitated against the
government’s desperate move to appropriate the Employees Provident Fund
by investing it in the stock market, the police opened fire, killing
Roshen Chanaka, a young FTZ worker, and injuring several others. No
investigation was conducted to punish those responsible for the police
violence.
In January this year, when the fishermen protested in
Chilaw, on the west coast, against the government’s fuel price hikes,
police shot dead a fisherman and maimed several others. These killings
are just the sharpest expression of the government’s anti-democratic
methods.
The brutal killing of JVP supporters at a public
meeting must be condemned. But the JVP itself bears political
responsibility for helping Rajapakse into power and supporting the
build-up of the state apparatus and its crimes during Rajapakse’s
renewed war against the LTTE that ended in May 2009.
The leader
of the pseudo-radical Nava Sama Samaja Party, Wickramabahu Karunaratne,
took part in a press conference with the FSP over the incident. He
boasted to the audience that he was “forcing the government to bring the
killers to courts.” Such claims serve only to foster the dangerous
illusion that the Rajapakse government, which is implicated in the
attack, can be pressured into respecting democratic rights.
The
Socialist Equality Party warns workers, youth and the rural poor that
their basic rights can be defended only in the struggle to oust this
government, and overturn capitalist rule altogether. Even if, for
tactical political reasons, the hired hands who executed the latest
killings are brought before courts, the government’s underlying course
will not alter, and its austerity agenda will require ever-more violent
and anti-democratic methods of rule. (WSWS)
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