SL Police harasses Sinhala writer after articles on marauding Sinhala-Buddhist violence

[TamilNet, Monday, 17 June 2019, 19:04 GMT]
The Organised Crimes Prevention Division (OCPD) of the SL Police in Colombo is harassing veteran journalist Kusal Perera, a Sinhala political essayist, who has been writing about the escalating anti-Muslim Sinhala-Buddhist extremism after the Easter Sunday attacks. The Free Media Movement (FMM) in Colombo said that the SL Police was attempting to record a statement from the editors of Colombo-based English newspaper Daily Mirror on Friday. The SL Police was trying to convince the Colombo Magistrate Courts to detain and investigate the journalist under the provisions of the so-called ‘International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights’ (ICCPR) Act No 56 of 2007. The FMM said that the latest move by the SL Police was setting “dangerous precedent” as it was a serious threat to the freedom of expression and media and the pursuance of legal action under the ICCPR Act.

The SL Police in Polgahawela was invoking the ICCPR Act also before the Easter Sunday attacks to detain 33-year-old Shakthika Sathkumaraan award-winning Sinhala novelist on the charges of inciting ‘religious hatred’ for his short story on homosexuality among the Theravada Buddhist monks on 01st April. The ICCPR Act also includes a provision to disallow bail. Cases filed under this 2007 Act have to be moved at the SL High Court to secure the release of the detainee even on bail.

“Despite historical ‘claims’ with disputing historical records on the role of Buddhist monks in ancient Sinhala kingdoms, the question this society has to seriously answer is, are we giving into extremist Buddhist monks to rule this country as they wish, in the name of Buddhism? Would not that lead to a Sinhala Buddhist (SB) Theocratic State?”, Kusal Perera asked in one of his recent blog posts published on 11th June 2019. The blog post was titled: Sinhala Buddhist Theocratic State being “decided” on the streets.

Although Kusal Perera was avoiding to recognise the genocidal modus operandi of the Sinhala Theravada Buddhist extremism in his writings, he was exposing the actors backing the emerging trends behind the manifestation of it.

The SL Police was questioning the Daily Mirror editors for his piece titled ‘From Islamic Extremism to marauding Sinhala-Buddhist violence’, which was published on 17th May 2019

In that article, Kusal Perera, also exposed the controversial Sinhala Catholic Archbishop in Colombo, Malcolm Ranjith, supporting special status to Buddhism and Tamil minister Mano Ganesan, who went to the extent of contradicting his fellow minister Mangala Samaraweera. Mano Ganesan had gone on record stating “We have to accept Sri Lanka is a Sinhala-Buddhist country,” Kusal Perera noted in his article.

The Daily Mirror article is reproduced below:



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Sinhala Buddhist Theocratic State being “decided” on the streets

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