Sinhala nationalists burn another church in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 January 2004, 09:52 GMT]
A group of Sinhala Buddhist protestors set fire to a Catholic chuch late Wednesday night in a town on the outskirts of Colombo, Sri Lanka Police said. Six churches of different christian denominations have been burnt in recent months in the rising tide of violence against Christians in the Sinhala majority districts of Sri Lanka.

Catholic church sources said that a group of Buddhist monks had earlier threatened the parish priest of the burnt church in Katuwana, Homagama. They had also hoisted Buddhist flagson the Katuwana Church.

The Police in Homagama took no action although the priest had lodged a complaint that he had been threatened to leave the area or face dire consequences, Catholic church sources said.

Sri Lankan Police and armed forces are predominantly Sinhala Buddhist.