Clashes, violence follow arrest

Violent clashes between opposition supporters and government supporters backed by the police have followed the arrest of the main opposition candidate at the last presidential polls.

Demonstrations were organised across Sri Lanka to protest the arrest of General (retd) Sarath Fonseka on various charges including plotting to overthrow the government and planning the assassination of President Mahinda Rajapakse.

There was a broad coalition of support for the protestors, with organizers including the Sinhala nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), the main parliamentary opposition United National Party (UNP) and the Buddhist clergy.

Clashes were reported in at least 3 cities, including the capital, Colombo, where the first reports of violence came from 2 days after Fonseka’s arrest.

In Colombo, eye-witnesses reports of around 50 government supporters attacking a group of 2,500 opposition supporters with stones and bottles, resulting in a number of injuries, were carried by local media.

Protestors were also seen attacking the police personnel, reports said, adding that iron rods, clubs and stones were being used.

Journalists at the scene said they saw clubs being unloaded from a car to attack the protestors.

The press reports said that when the demonstrators retaliated, the police intervened and fired tear gas and water cannons to break up the crowds.

Police leniency against violent government supporters was obvious, the eyewitnesses said.

"They stoned us and attacked with clubs and even threw glass bottles at us in front of the police," one woman told Reuters news agency.

"Police are beating the protesters with batons," said a Reuters photographer at the scene of the protest in a Colombo suburb.

In Maharagama, Kandy and other parts of the south, the police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse protests, the press reports said.

Locals have expressed concern over the possibility of further clashes when the case against Fonseka’s arrest is heard later in February.

Meanwhile, Britain and the United States have expressed concerns over the general's treatment since his hotel was surrounded by army troops after his election defeat last month, the Daily Telegraph newspaper reported. But there has been little official reaction to the arrest.

But the Buddhist clergy has had a mixed response to the arrest, with different chapters taking varying positions.

The Mahanayaka of Malwatte Chapter initially said he was awaiting a response from the president, saying that Rajapakse "could have been in dark" while the arrest took place.

But the Mahanayaka of Asgiriya Chapter deplored the sudden arrest of Fonseka.

However the clergy, who were due to hold a meeting to discuss the arrest on 18 February postponed the meeting.

The monks were due to discuss a strategy for pressing the government to release Fonseka, but cancelled the meeting citing government pressure, reported AFP. 

The gathering at the Temple of the Tooth in the central city of Kandy was called off a day before the meeting, with the monks citing concerns for their safety in the "current political climate".

One of their spokesmen, Athangane Ratanapala, said the paramount Buddhist cleric, Thibbotuwawe Sumangala, had been subjected to "severe stress" ahead of the scheduled gathering, reported AFP.

"Many individuals representing the government as well as some members of the clergy who are working for the government used tremendous pressure on us to stop our meeting," he said.

Opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe went further, telling reporters in Colombo that specific threats had been made.

"They had been told that there could be bomb blasts at the Temple of the Tooth if they go ahead with the meeting," Wickremesinghe said.

There was no immediate comment from the government, which has maintained that it was not influencing the clergy.