{"id":61038,"date":"2016-12-01T08:05:55","date_gmt":"2016-12-01T14:05:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=61038"},"modified":"2016-12-01T00:10:16","modified_gmt":"2016-12-01T07:10:16","slug":"immediate-deterrent-action-needed-to-eradicate-inter-community-violence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2016\/12\/01\/immediate-deterrent-action-needed-to-eradicate-inter-community-violence\/","title":{"rendered":"IMMEDIATE DETERRENT ACTION NEEDED TO ERADICATE INTER-COMMUNITY VIOLENCE"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Governing Council <\/b>National Peace Council<\/b><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

\u00a0After a two year lull that followed replacement of the former government through the electoral process, public manifestations of inter community tension have increased in recent months.\u00a0 There are indications of political maneuvering behind these efforts to disturb the peace in the country and to bring ethno-religious nationalism to the fore.\u00a0 Video footages of religious clergy engaging in vitriolic attacks on those of other ethnic and religious groups have gone viral on the social media.\u00a0 Ethno nationalist organizations have been engaging in hate campaigns and intimidating those of other communities at the local level.\u00a0 Most notably in the North and East, there are clashes being reported on inter religious grounds.\u00a0 There are many incidents of religious clergy getting involved in expansionist projects, such as religious conversions, destruction of ancient sites or building places of worship in areas where they are less numerous<\/p>\n

\u00a0The National Peace Council welcomes President Maithripala Sirisena\u2019s admonition that anyone who violates the law would be dealt with by the law enforcement agencies.\u00a0 In a context in which religious tension is rising, the government is planning to conduct programmes to educate the clergy of all religions on the importance of integration and reconciliation.\u00a0 The Ministry of National Integration and Reconciliation A H M Fowzie is making arrangements to hold programmes to promote national reconciliation.\u00a0 Minister of Justice and Buddhasasana, Wijeyadasa Rajapaksheha has said that all ethnic and religious groups are welcome to participate in the dialogue.\u00a0 He said various groups, including the Bodu Bala Sena and Ravana Balaya, had agreed to participate in the effort to resolve issues through dialogue.<\/p>\n

\u00a0In addition to its awareness creation and dialogue-centred activities, the National Peace Council calls on the government to take action against those who engage in hate speech which creates disaffection and mistrust between communities.\u00a0 The suspected arson attack last Saturday on a Muslim owned warehouse in a Colombo suburb that was previously burned down in 2013 by a mob makes it clear that law enforcement is an urgent priority.\u00a0 In the past there has been a climate of impunity with charges not being brought against the perpetrators, and the victims being railroaded into informal settlements or face worse consequences.\u00a0 This has only served to embolden the aggressors.\u00a0\u00a0 As their conduct is in clear violation of the law we demand that the laws against incitement to disaffection be enforced by the Attorney General and the Police and those engaging in violence are given exemplary punishment through the judicial process as a deterrent to racist and mob action before they grows out of hand.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Governing Council National Peace Council<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Governing Council National Peace Council \u00a0After a two year lull that followed replacement of the former government through the electoral process, public manifestations of inter community tension have increased in recent months.\u00a0 There are indications of political maneuvering behind these efforts to disturb the peace in the country and to bring ethno-religious nationalism to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-buddhism","category-security"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61038\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}