Fighting in a minefield

Clashes at filling stations and at cooking gas distributing centres are increasing with the heightening uncertainty over the fuel and gas supply in the near future. The number of reports of police and the army using firearms to control the angry mobs at fuel stations and gas distributing centres are also increasing. This seems to be a bad omen of an impending disaster, as the fuel and gas scarcity is likely to exacerbate in the coming weeks which might intensify the angry reaction by the people. 

In an incident that took place in Vishvamadu in Mullaitivu on Saturday, a mob is said to have pelted bottles and stones at the army personnel manning a guard point at a fuel station prompting the army to open fire in the air to disperse them. However, later army said that three soldiers had sustained injuries in the incident.
In another commotion in Maspotha, Kurunegala, electronic media showed a group of policemen including a senior officer brandishing a pistol, manhandling a man who is said to have shouted at the fuel station workers after they were told that there was no more fuel left to be distributed. The man had accused that the fuel station workers were lying. The scene had been caught on camera and widely circulated in social media. 

Police said six of their officers were injured during a clash at a filling station in Athurugiriya on Friday, when they had to control an angry group of people waiting for days for fuel in a queue were demanding fuel after the filling station workers announced that fuel stocks ran out.  

These were the three among many incidents that have taken place in several areas across the country during the past few days due to the scarcity of fuel and gas. People’s frustration and the anger are justifiable, despite them resorting to mob justice being unacceptable. People are waiting in queues for days and sometimes weeks even after the authorities announced that no fuel or gas would be distributed for the next two or three days, since stocks have not arrived. They don’t seem to trust the authorities, as various politicians and officials give different versions on the availability and distribution of fuel. The frustration had escalated further last week, with the reports that it was the last consignment of fuel imported under the Indian line of credit that is being distributed. And people were not given any assurance by the authorities on the other avenues they have to address the fuel and gas issue. 
Police might be under pressure by the higher-ups to contain the tension among the people wherever such situations occur. On the other hand, it is their duty to maintain law and order in the country whatever the circumstances might be that lead to tensions and clashes. However, police and the security forces should understand the state of mind of the people these days before they handle the tumultuous situations. In fact, ordinary policemen and the soldiers could understand the situation very easily, since their families are also suffering from similar predicament – the scarcity and the skyrocketing prices of essential goods, unlike their higher-ups. 

A sensible man can understand the state of mind of another man who is told after waiting in a queue near a fuel station for three or four days that fuel stock is used up before he could obtain a small volume of it. We hear people in queues lamenting to the journalists that they had been waiting in those queues for ten or twelve days. What a life! It is natural for a man to become impatient and misbehave after waiting weeks day and night near a filling station or gas distributing centre without any assurance of getting them. And the most important fact is that they are being penalized for no fault of theirs. 

Nobody can deny that handling these incidents and maintaining order is an extremely difficult task. However, it has to be carried out with extreme restraint and understanding, as explosion of frustration and anger in tens of thousands of people into violence would be catastrophic. Police personnel on the ground as human beings too might lose patience during such volatile situations, but the senior officials have the responsibility to guide them not to provoke the already frustrated people.

Sri Lanka is in dire straits. We are on the brink of a famine-like situation. If clashes at fuel stations turn into mass riots, people, especially those live in urban areas would have to starve to death since food and other essential items brought now from countryside would also stop reaching those segments of the populace. Vegetable supply has already been largely affected due to the fuel shortage. Hence, it is imperative for the people also to act with utmost patience and understanding, despite their anger against the establishment. It is like fighting in a minefield.