July 22 attacks and future of Aragalaya : Can the Aragalaya survive amidst suppressive measures by the state?

• The military persons were masked and we suspected one of them as being under the influence of alcohol     
• For over three months there has been a mutual understanding between the Police and the protesters

Having achieved its primary objective of ousting an Executive President- who couldn’t deliver his promises- the protesters at the Galle Face Green decided to withdraw from the Presidential Secretariat and Gate Zero on July 22. However during the early hours of July 22, the security forces surrounded the GotaGoGama protest site and forcibly took over the Presidential Secretariat; while mercilessly assaulting peaceful protesters without any credible reason. Subsequently President Ranil Wickremesinghe had said that Viharamaha Devi Park, Hyde Park, Campbell Park and similar venues are open for people to carry out peaceful protests. But Galle Face protesters are of the view that it is up to the protesters to decide where they would protest and that the President shouldn’t be deciding their protest location. 

I repeatedly said that we are doing our job and not to obstruct our duties. While capturing a video of military personnel attacking one of the protesters I felt a blow to my spine and my phone fell immediately. The military took them to an alleyway and started assaulting them mercilessly”

Shabeer Mohamed Journalist

Recollections of military brutality

“On July 22, at around 12.45am, we heard that the security forces had surrounded GotaGoGama,” recalled Shabeer Mohamed, a journalist who was attacked during on July 22. “Thereafter myself and another journalist took our cameras and went to capture footage. By that time the Army, STF, Navy and Air Force personnel had surrounded us from Gate Zero and Baladaksha Mawatha. We headed towards Crescat and there we were told that journalists weren’t allowed entry; adding that they were orders from above. We took a livestream from the vicinity of Cinnamon Grand Hotel and the military started to take video footage of us. The Air Force personnel also started assaulting civilians who were trying to move towards Galle Face as well. Amongst them there were people with questionable identities and they didn’t seem like military personnel. Some were in red and blue T-shirts. The military assaulted one of the protesters and he started screaming from time to time. They took away people’s phones including mine; these people were capturing live videos. I repeatedly said that we are doing our job and not to obstruct our duties. While capturing a video of military personnel attacking one of the protesters I felt a blow to my spine and my phone fell immediately. The military took them to an alleyway and started assaulting them mercilessly. They were tortured for around 3 hours and those who were arrested were taken to the Maradana Police Station. We weren’t aware of the whereabouts of a few journalists and once we were informed that two other journalists were at Marine Drive we rushed to rescue them and took them to hospital. Those arrested were tortured in a brutal manner. The first ambulance was allowed inside Galle Face around 10.00 am the following day. The military persons were masked and we suspected one of them as being under the influence of alcohol as he repeatedly pointed the gun towards us. On the other hand most of them were in civil,” said Mohamed.

The occupy movement isn’t necessary to confirm the people’s power as there are novel ways of carrying out protests in this digital era. The protests have got nothing to do with a certain geographical location. We are not ready to relocate to another location”

Vimukthi  Dushantha, 
Convener of the Black Cap Movement

Security forces exerting the ‘required force’

“We had received information about attempts to destroy the Bandaranaike statue,” said Police Media Spokesperson SSP Nihal Thalduwa during a special media conference. 

“The courts issued an order to vacate all establishments within a 50 metre radius from the statue. But protesters didn’t seem to abide by the court order as well. We requested people to carry out protests in a peaceful manner, but this peaceful atmosphere was changing. 

We saw how certain police officers were trying to save the protesters when the so-called Army personnel were brutally assaulting them. Therefore we are surprised as to why the Police is taking the blame on an unwanted matter”

Manoj  Nanayakkara Attorney-at-law

On July 9 they occupied the President’s House, Temple Trees, Prime Minister’s office and Presidential Secretariat. Even though we requested them to vacate these premises they did vacate the President’s House, Temple Trees and the Prime Minister’s office after a few days. But the protesters obstructed the entrance to the Presidential Secretariat. 

The Fort Police OIC requested the protesters to vacate the entrance on nine instances.

“There is no institution for the President to carry out his duties. The Presidential Secretariat is one of the main institutions that takes decisions on behalf of the people. We couldn’t trust the protesters who said that they would withdraw. As a result the Police, military and STF personnel took measures to take away protesters who were involved in an illegal gathering. It is a public property and protesters have no right to occupy a space by force. 
This is why we had to use the ‘required force’ to get the Presidential Secretariat back to the state. We had to remove certain temporary tents in the vicinity. Investigations and site inspections are being conducted and it would take a few days to get the final evaluation report.

“The Police, military and security forces have the responsibility to take action within the legal framework. The security forces have a right to exert required force under the Public security ordinance. While removing the people we didn’t use emergency regulations. This shows the mechanism we executed on behalf of the protesters. 

“People have a right to protest and even if the protest site changes, perhaps the state might allocate a different area to protest and even then people have a right to protest. If somebody resorts to violence or humiliate law enforcement authorities we will have to take actions accordingly. We work according to the provisions of the Constitution,” said SSP Thalduwa.

It’s not a struggle that is limited to a location,”

Melanie Gunathilaka Protester

Lawyers to file HR case against Police 

In response to the media conference held by the Police, Attorney-at-law Manoj Nanayakkara said that alleged paramilitary troops with questionable identities executed the attacks on July 22. “The Police department has accepted that the attacks were executed by the Police, Armed forces and the STF. But we didn’t see the Navy or the Police being present. We saw how certain police officers were trying to save the protesters when the so-called Army personnel were brutally assaulting them. Therefore we are surprised as to why the Police is taking the blame on an unwanted matter. The July 22 attack was a political attack; similar to the attacks done by the political terrorists on May 9. The only difference is that this time, the government used the tri-forces as a shield,” said Nanayakkara.

“The Police media Spokesperson says that people have started to outsmart the law as a result of the aragalaya. But we believe that people have become more confident to stand against injustice, irrespective of the situation as a result of the aragalaya. Is standing against injustice an act of going beyond the law? We therefore like to urge the Police department to differentiate between justice and injustice as people have a right to stand against injustice. For over three months there has been a mutual understanding between the Police and the protesters. There were Police officers near Gate Zero, but neither the protesters nor the Police did anything to create a rift between each other. But this understanding was severed from time to time due to political interventions and due to the fact that certain officers in higher ranks expected promotions or wanted to protect their positions. As a result they attempted to instigate violence during peaceful protests.

We couldn’t trust the protesters who said that they would withdraw. As a result the Police, military and STF personnel took measures to take away protesters who were involved in an illegal gathering.”

SSP Nihal Thalduwa 
Police Media Spokesperson

“The Police were showing certain video clips and there was one video near the Bandaranaike Statue. I don’t know why they are spreading false messages. The court order is still pasted there. The protesters asked the Police to leave the premises, but they never used any offensive language. The Police say that they have received information from intelligence services and have obtained a court order based on this information. As lawyers we filed a motion against this court order. As protesters they too have a right to give their reasons on whether they were trying to remove the statue or not. We saw the OIC taking calls and it is clear that he was executing orders from above. He was on a call during the entire time he was at the premises. Therefore we request the Police to refrain from spreading false information and interpretations,” said Nanayakkara. 

“The Police said that they had requested the protesters to hand over the Presidential Secretariat. But they never made such a request. Instead they only asked when we would vacate the Presidential Secretariat. On July 18 the SSP, ASP, and Fort Police Acting OIC visited the premises. When I contacted the Acting OIC they confirmed their visit and then the ASP contacted me and said that they asked when we would vacate the place. On that day I said that we would respond on the evening of July 20 following the election. When the situation changed on July 20 we said we needed a few days to take a decision. Subsequently we decided to vacate the Presidential Secretariat and Gate Zero on July 22. We subsequently informed the Acting OIC of the Fort Police station regarding this decision. We also informed various individuals associating higher authorities about our decisions to withdraw from these premises. Everybody knew that we were going to withdraw and still they executed the brutal attack on protesters,” he added.

Nanayakkara further said that Army officers weren’t wearing army uniforms. They were wearing uniforms similar to military uniforms, but there weren’t any insignia on them except for a badge. These were people with questionable identities. If the Police is accepting that they carried out the attacks then they should take total responsibility. They say they used the required force, but do they have a right to use wooden rods? They assaulted people with cables used in high tension lines. Which Penal Code has provisions to allow the Police and military to inhumanely attack protesters in this manner? The emergency law cannot be used to justify these actions!  How did the Police accept that they executed the attacks? As a means of seeking justice, we will take actions to file human rights cases against the Police,” he added.

Military personnel taking away journalists by force

Protesters to continue occupying Galle Face 

Several media reports also revealed plans by the government to relocate the protest site to Viharamaha Devi Park. However Galle Face protesters claim that such a plan will not be executed as it is an occupying movement and the protesters will continue to occupy the Galle Face protest site until Ranil Wickremesinghe also leaves. “It’s not a struggle that is limited to a location,” said Melanie Gunathilaka speaking on behalf of the protesters. It’s a struggle across the country and not just in GotaGoGama in Colombo. This struggle is against the system and corruption and we will be here until there’s a solution to bridge the loopholes within this democratic system. We will be here until we have leaders that care about human rights and justice of the people. The attacks showed that what they want is for us to leave the occupation – we have informed them that we will be leaving the next day. Even after saying that we would withdrew they still attacked protesters. People who were treated on the road too were brutally assaulted. We are protesting at a designated agitation site. We will continue to occupy the space until there’s a systematic change to this age old corruption that has continued for so long and that has oppressed all Sri Lankans for years. Until such time, the GotaGoGama occupation will continue. 

Validity of GotaGoGama

“Relocating the protest site should be decided by the protesters and not by the government,” opined Vimukthi Dushantha, Convener of the Black Cap Movement. “However the primary objective of the Galle Face protest, which is #GotaGoHome has now been achieved. Therefore we feel that GotaGoGama isn’t valid anymore. However the occupy movement isn’t necessary to confirm the people’s power as there are novel ways of carrying out protests in this digital era. The protests have got nothing to do with a certain geographical location. We are not ready to relocate to another location just because the President wants us to do so. The problem we have is that he continues to assist the Rajapaksas to come back to power and we are also concerned about suppressive measures carried out by him against peaceful protesters.”

“The Galle Face protest should now go beyond occupying state institutions, chanting slogans etc., and aim at bringing about required Constitutional reforms to abolish the Executive Presidency for instance,” opined Akalanka Hettiarachchi, General Secretary of the Movement. “The protest isn’t confined to a particular geographical location anymore and protesters should now look at the broader perspective of bringing about an actual system change. We like to call this Aragalaya 4.0 as we have already presented a set of suggestions to take the protest beyond Galle Face.”