brand logo

Human Rights Commission monitors Galle Face protests

17 Apr 2022

  • Aims to continuously monitor to maintain peace
BY Pamodi Waravita The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) sent its officers to monitor the ongoing “Go Home Gota” protests underway at Galle Face Green over the weekend to ensure that peace is maintained in the area. “Our officers were at Galle Face Green on both Saturday (16) and Sunday (17). We want to continuously monitor it to ensure that the protests are conducted peacefully,” a senior HRCSL official told The Morning yesterday. The “Occupy Galle Face” movement reached its ninth consecutive day yesterday (17). The rapidly expanding protest area now includes a people’s library, people’s university, people’s forum and various other events throughout the day. The protestors continue the protest by staying overnight in tents erected throughout the area, and have named the area “GotaGoGama”.  When The Morning visited the protest site last Saturday (16), many more tents were observed closer to the S.W.R.D Bandaranaike statue, compared to the number of tents that were initially only present closer to the Presidential Secretariat last Wednesday (13). Entire families, including children, were seen at the protest site last week, where protestors were seen engaging in different activities, with consistent chants demanding the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Meanwhile, concerns arose on social media that the Ganemulla Army Camp is training soldiers to impersonate peaceful protestors and infiltrate protests. Speaking to The Morning in this regard, the HRCSL official said that HRCSL officials had visited the said Army Camp on 16 Saturday for investigations into the matter. However, in a statement issued last Saturday, the Sri Lanka Army denied any “sinister moves”. “The Army very strongly and categorically denies those sinister moves and flatly rejects those attempts, meant to bring disrepute to this organisation, and simultaneously urge the civic-conscious and right-minded citizens of this country to place the full confidence in the troops as it has been done in the past, because current serving troops remain more trained, professionally qualified, and well-suited to take on any security challenge, in this scenario, ONLY if the Police call us to assist them,” said the statement. Last Saturday, media revealed images of a large number of police trucks that had arrived close to the Galle Face Green. A short while later on the same day, the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) released a statement, urging the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) to “desist from taking any steps whatsoever to disrupt what is a legitimate exercise of the freedom of dissent of the people”. “The BASL views with grave concern any attempt to disrupt in whatever manner, what is a peaceful protest by the people of this country. Any such attempts will have grave repercussions for the country, its democracy, its economy and the rule of law.” The BASL further noted that the trucks were removed after the matter was highlighted on social media and brought to the attention of the authorities. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa invited those who are part of the “Occupy Galle Face” movement for discussions last week. However, the protest continues, demanding that the President resign.


More News..