[Daily Mirror (SL), 08 July 2010]
At the domestic level, Sri Lanka being a democratic society, the Government had to respect the entitlement to voice opinion, including through peaceful demonstrations. Accordingly, the Police permitted a peaceful gathering in front of the complex – Government statement.
If Minister Wimal Weerawansa and his team lay siege on Temple Trees tomorrow and block the inhabitants from entering or leaving the premises, would anybody call it a peaceful demonstration? It is a criminal act.
The employees in the UN office in Colombo are predominantly Sri Lankan. And for Minister Weerawansa’s information, they are no relations of Ban ki-Moon. There are also a few foreigners and the Sri Lankan government under the Vienna Convention is duty bound to protect both the categories of employees, property and the premises of the UN office.
When Minister Wimal Weerawansa threatened to lay siege on UN office here about a week ago the government distanced itself from the declaration by informing the UN that it was his personal opinion and should not be taken as the government view. However it was not known what the government stand was.
If the government was against Wimal’s stand it could have prevented the NFF protestors led by Weerawansa, who walked into the area vowing to siege the UN office, from doing so.
It did not do that.
Reportedly it was the IGP who had sent the police to crack down on the protestors. However when they were half way through the clearing, allowing the staff to move out of the compound, an order came overruling the IGP’s to halt the police move. As a result part of the staff got stuck inside the compound and it was only late in the evening that they could get out at the intervention of Foreign Secretary Romesh Jayasinghe.
To cover up for the humiliation caused by the police attack and also to keep the media entertained the NLF started a Thovilaya there and continued to shout slogans.
After all this drama the government issued one of its silliest statements ever justifying the siege as a ‘peaceful demonstration’. The ambiguous statement only went on to confirm its own hand in the drama. It knew very well what Minister Weerawansa was up to when he led the protestors vowing to prevent staff from moving out. Clippings by private TV stations all bore witness to that.
It will only take a few days for the government to realize the magnitude of its blunder.