Stop labelling student protestors as terrorists

We are a group of feminists writing to call urgent attention to the extra-Constitutional attempts of the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) to suppress dissent. Lacking a popular mandate, hunting down student protestors and activists, including a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, and intersex (LGBTQI+) activist has become a central strategy of the political elite in order to retain power. The latest move by the GoSL is to brand three student leaders and the student union they represent, the Inter-University Students’ Federation (IUSF), as “terrorists”.

IUSF Convenor Wasantha Mudalige, Inter-University Bhikkhu Federation Convenor Ven. Galwewa Siridhamma Thera, and student activist Hashan Jeewantha were among the 20 arrested on 18 August 2022, for participating in a peaceful protest led by the student movement. All three of them are prominent student leaders who have been at the forefront of the struggles for socio-economic justice in Sri Lanka, particularly against numerous ongoing attempts to dismantle free education.

The Sri Lanka Police has failed to adhere to legal due process safeguards concerning all arrests made after 9 May 2022. In addition to 3,500-plus arbitrary arrests and detentions after 9 May, the Government has started to charge student protestors under the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act as amended (PTA). After keeping Mudalige, Siridhamma Thera, and Jeewantha in illegal custody for 92 hours after being arrested on 18 August, the Police went ahead to detain them for 90 days under provisions made under the PTA. This is an arbitrary and illegal practice. It is also a blatant violation of the fundamental rights of these activist students and amounts to enforced disappearances for the reason that their whereabouts and the status of their well-being are unknown.

The threat of detention and charges under the PTA will effectively limit their political activism and their important contribution to calling for a system change in Sri Lanka. It continues the dangerous practice adopted by successive Governments against citizens who have a different view, who are critical, who legitimately air grievances and exercise their Constitutionally guaranteed rights of free speech including the right to protest, peaceful assembly, and citizen participation in governance.

Successive governments have weaponised colonial anti-terror laws (Public Security Ordinance), the PTA, and the hate speech provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights Act, to suppress Tamil and Muslim minority communities and dissidents of the governments’ anti-democratic behaviour. Civil society activists, journalists, doctors, and students, almost always of minority origin, were arrested and detained for months without being afforded due process. The PTA was also used to strike terror in the Muslim communities after the Easter Sunday attacks in April 2019. Many of those arrested under the PTA experience torture for confessions and languish in prisons without a fair opportunity to defend themselves.

International human rights actors and organisations have condemned the PTA which has become a whip to control the Sri Lankan population. The proposal for the repeal of the PTA drew international support from human rights lobbies and has been insisted as a precondition to renewing the Generalised Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+) trade benefits with the European Union (EU). In response, successive governments have explored different mechanisms to retain the PTA. In 2018, a Bill for an equally repressive Counter Terrorism Act was presented by then-Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s Cabinet of Ministers and in 2022, then-Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa’s Cabinet passed in the Parliament cursory amendments to the PTA to appease international pressure. These attempts were heavily resisted by the people of Sri Lanka, a struggle of which the IUSF was a part of. Retaining these anti-terror laws is part of the Government’s strategy to control citizen engagement.

People’s protests in Sri Lanka are a celebration of democracy. Instead of listening to the voices of the people and respecting their aspirations for democratic futures, an unpopular Government is trying to extend the national security apparatus to silence people. As people call for justice and accountability, the Government employs fear tactics, creates new enemies, and silences dissent against moves to establish oppressive socio-economic systems. Detaining student leaders under the PTA would be the death of democracy in Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka is going through its worst economic crisis. Under pressure from international bondholders, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, the current Government is steamrolling harsh neoliberal reforms on already distressed people. Detaining student leaders under the PTA is preemptive law enforcement so as to stop future protests against neoliberal reforms. In other words, the Government is closing democratic space so that there would be zero resistance.

We call upon your support, solidarity, and power to join hands with a feminist voice against this GoSL that has, without a shadow of a doubt, failed to protect its citizens, punishes the expression of rights, and is mobilising every repressive law and practice at its disposal in order to maintain its anti-democratic hold over power.