Sri Lankans protest in New York over Kandy tensions

About 250 demonstrators including Sri Lankans gathered outside the UN headquarters in New York  on Wednesday in a protest organised by The Association of Sri Lankan Muslims in North America (Tasmina), which asked the UN to intervene and hold the Sri Lankan government responsible for the recent Digana incident and to bring rioters to justice, the Gulf Times reported.

Ghazzali Wadood, who was one of the protesters, said: “It is the ultra-nationalists who are responsible for the attacks. The government should take action against the politicians behind the attacks.”

For Shihana Mohamed a protestor it was heartbreaking, listening over the phone as her family’s history of living harmoniously in the Kandy area for more than a thousand years, unravelled on March 5, she told the publication.
Mohamed told IANS that her sister-in-law fractured her leg while fleeing the fury of the mob that attacked her brother’s house, destroying it and burning his car.

Her 83-year-old bedridden uncle’s house was also attacked, she said, and his family had to carry him to safety.
As she was hearing about the attacks on her phone, she said that she wept and then desperately called diplomats asking for help. While the attacks were taking place, the security personnel stationed nearby did not intervene, she said.
Mohamed said that while the attackers were Sinhala extremists, there were other Sinhalese who came to the aid of Muslims at risk to themselves.