Sri Lanka’s president claimed that protestors are taking children to demonstrations as “human shields”, comparing it to Sri Lanka’s military offensive in 2009 that killed tens of thousands of Tamil civilians.
Ranil Wickremesinghe’s comments came in the wake of Sri Lankan police violence against protestors in Colombo on Sunday, including incidents captured on camera of children caught in the melee.
UPDATE: Mother and child dragged off protest site by police in Galle Face, Colombo#lka #SriLanka #SLnews #News #News1st #Police #RiotPolice #Commemoration pic.twitter.com/d5NL5iIQzB
— Newsfirst.lk Sri Lanka (@NewsfirstSL) October 9, 2022
Wickremesinghe slammed protestors for bringing children to demonstrations, claiming that it was similar to what LTTE leader Prabhakaran did during the armed conflict. The Sri Lankan government routinely claimed that civilians were being held as “human shields” – a claim that a UN Panel of Experts report “did not find credible evidence” of. The Sri Lankan military offensive saw relentless shelling, including of hospitals and other civilian targets, with tens of thousands of Tamils killed.
Read more on the events of 20009 here: 13 years today - A massacre in Mullivaikkal
Earlier this year, UNICEF released a statement saying “Children’s rights to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression, including in peaceful protest, are enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Sri Lanka has signed and ratified”.
“In exercising these rights, children must not be manipulated. They should be given the opportunity to meaningfully voice their own concerns and participate in matters that affect their futures, and they need to be listened to. All actors must refrain from violence, and fundamental guarantees for the protection of children must remain applicable everywhere, at all times.”