Journalists harrassed

BBS turns violent

By Ranga Jayasuriya

A local journalist and a BBC news crew were threatened by marauding mobs at an anti-Halal rally organized by the controversial Buddhist organization, Bodu Bala Sena, held in Maharagama on Sunday.

Ahamed Roomy, a young journalist of the Nawamuni newspaper, who was covering the rally was accosted by the mobs who threatened him with violence. "They asked my name and where I work. When I produced my media accreditation card, they questioned why I was covering the event," he said.

"'This is not for Muslims,' they threatened, and took me to a monk who let me go after questioning me."

The incident took place soon after Ven. Galagodatte Gnanassara Thera, General Secretary of the controversial Buddhist organization concluded his speech, in which he told the crowd that they should double up as police in order to protect Buddhism.

However, Roomy was accosted by the mobs again while he was leaving the rally and was taken to another monk who had admonished the young journalist for being present in the event.

"The members of Bodu Bala Sena video recorded me and mobs who surrounded me verbally abused me. Their grouse was that I am a Muslim," he said.

The police, who it appeared were being subservient to the mobs, had later locked Roomy in a nearby compound. The members of the mob had snatched his camera, removed the memory card and deleted the pictures.

He said he was later given a new memory card by the monks who kept his used memory card after mobs advised them that the pictures could be recovered from the chip even after they were deleted.

Later, the police took him and a monk who represented the Bodu Bala Sena to the police station where their statements were recorded.

He said the police were cordial and courteous.

In another incident, BBC journalists Charles Haviland, Azzam Ameen and Channa Kumara were threatened by the mobs who accosted the team as they were covering the same rally organized by the controversial Buddhist organization.

The two local staffers were verbally abused by the members of the mob in bad language, who had called them "traitors" and were accused of having "foreign parents" and working for a "foreign conspirator" who was "against Sri Lanka," said Azzam Ameen.

Ameen said the police prevented them from leaving, and had wanted them to wait until a senior officer arrived at the scene.

Later, a 'good humoured' senior policeman, as Haviland described in the BBC, intervened and waved the besieged media team off.

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