A protest march, organized by the Inter University Students’ Federation, was held yesterday.
The students demonstrated to demand the government to:
1) Increase Mahapola & Bursary payment to Rs. 5,000
2) Increase Funds for Education
3) Increase Workers’ Wages
4) Abolish the Fraud Private Medical College in Malambe
5) End Privatization
6) End Tuition fees for External Degrees
7) End Repression of Students
8) End Militarization
9) End Charging Fees at Schools
The protest march commenced from the University of Visual and Performing Arts and headed to the Parliament Complex in Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte. As the students’ march closed in on the Parliament, the police used barricades to stop the students.
However, the students continued to march towards Parliament. The police then used water cannons and tear gas to disperse the students. A total of 20 students were injured as a result of the police attack; 12 have been hospitalized; and two have suffered fractures to their legs.
The students hail from the Universities of Jayawardenepura and Visual and Performing Arts.
It is believed that the injuries resulted due to the police having fired the canisters of tear gas directly at the students, instead of firing them into the sky. There are clear indications of the police having using tear gas to not disperse the crowd, but to deliberately injure the students
Firstly, the tear gas was fired right at the front of the march. However, when the students who had trouble breathing, as a result of the effect of tear gas, started running backward, they had to meet with another round of tear gas fired to the centre of the crowd, which made the impact worse on the already affected students. When the students tried to approach the lake on both sides of the road and take shelter among the trees on either side, tear gas was fired directly there as well. The attack was sinister, made with the deliberate intention of injuring the students. As a result, the number of injured is high.
It is ironic that a group of students who came to make their voices heard were attacked so brutally, in front of Parliament, the very institution that is supposedly meant to protect the sovereign powers of the people.
Please stand in solidarity with the students of Sri Lanka who are facing systematic repression.
In Solidarity,
Students for Human Rights – Sri Lanka
