Sri Lanka: "Government causes inter-religious tensions"

Radio France International International approach

April 22, 2019

In an interview with RFI, Eva Borreguero, an expert from the Indian subcontinent of the Complutense University of Madrid, holds the Sri Lankan government responsible for radical Buddhist nationalism that exacerbates inter-religious tensions.

The Sri Lankan authorities indicate that a local Islamist group – with possible international links – has perpetrated the deadly attacks. For Bernabé Malacalza, an internationalist with the National Council of Scientific Investigations of Argentina, he considers the conclusion of the government "hasty" because "it was expected that attacks would be launched and, precisely, the intelligence services that had not avoided them now , quickly identified the authors. Islamist extremism or jihadism "

The terrible simultaneous attacks on hotels and churches that left 290 dead and 500 wounded in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday are reminiscent of the three-decade-long civil war in the country's northern land of Tamil people. been sealed brutally ten years ago.

Malacalza is convinced that "religious extremism, separatism and militarism have always been present in the history of Sri Lanka," said Malacalza. It is an explosive mixture that also creates confusion because there are also militarized extremist groups and militarized separatist groups. "

Since 2009, the island had not experienced so much violence. But the Sri Lankan government's policy since the end of the civil war has helped to tighten relations between the different island cultures dominated by Buddhists. In this country of 21 million inhabitants, several religious minorities coexist: Christians (7% of the population), Hindus (12%) and Muslims (10%).

Eva Borreguero: "Up to now, there has been no attack on the Christian community of this magnitude in Sri Lanka.There have been tensions due to a very belligerent Buddhist nationalism in against Muslim and Christian minorities and many attacks on mosques and Christian centers, but on a small scale.The question is: in the tension that takes decades in Sri Lanka, which could be late? "

Q: Sri Lanka experienced a terrible civil war between 1972 and 2009. A conflict opposing the majority of Sinhalese to the rebellious independence of the "Tamil Tigers" and culminating in 2009 in the badault on the country. army in the north of the island one of the deadliest operations of the new millennium. Since then, what has happened in this decade of "peace"? What is the fate of the Tamil population?

Answer: The Tamil independence movement has been eliminated, resulting in a very high cost of civilian deaths. According to United Nations figures, nearly 400,000 civilians have died in the last months of the offensive. What happened next is that a more radical Buddhist nationalism emerged, a clear policy of the government to strengthen Buddhism as a national identity of the country with the emergence of radical groups, which resulted in a increase in interreligious tensions.

Q: Is it possible to make the Indian parallel of Narendra Modi, where Hinduism has become a nationalist bulwark that reinforces the exclusion of the minority?

Answer: Yes, but there is a nuance: it is more acute in the case of Sri Lanka. In Sri Lanka, the government insists that India is not so open.

In Sri Lanka, Buddhism is not a state religion, but it is a declared policy of affirming Buddhism as a culture, as the main religion of the country.

People are encouraged to act (for example) by supporting radical Buddhist leaders, some from Myanmar (Burma), who make speeches inciting violence against Muslims and Christians. Speeches that are followed by badaults on the temples, without any condemnation. And with the silence of the Buddhist religious authorities ".

Source