SRI LANKA: RIVAL MUSLIM SECTS CLASH IN THE EAST

C O N F I D E N T I A L COLOMBO 001811

SIPDIS

STATE FOR SA/INS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/03/2014
TAGS: PGOV PHUM SOCI CE
SUBJECT: SRI LANKA: RIVAL MUSLIM SECTS CLASH IN THE EAST

Classified By: DCM JAMES F. ENTWISTLE. REASON: 1.4 (B,D).


1. (U) Local authorities imposed a night-time curfew in a
town in the eastern district of Batticaloa November 1-3 after
ten people were injured in violence between mainstream
Muslims and members of a rival Sufi sect. According to
M.L.A.M. Hizbullah, a local politician, the curfew was lifted
the morning of November 4 after "a temporary settlement" was
reached between the two parties. Neville Wijesinghe, Deputy
Inspector General of Police (DIG) in Batticaloa, reported
that as of early November 4 some businesses had begun to
reopen and a sense of normalcy was returning to the embattled
town of Kattankudy, located 5 km south of Batticaloa city.


2. (C) The trouble apparently arose from long-simmering
tensions between mainstream Muslims and members of the All
Ceylon Islamic Spiritual Movement, who follow a Sufi doctrine
deemed heretical by the Kattankudy Ulema. (Note: Nearly all
of Kattankudy's 75,000 residents are Muslim. An estimated 10
percent of the local population belong to the Sufi sect and
attend prayers at its mosques. End note.) According to DIG
Wijesinghe, the ill will between the two communities, which
has flared up periodically since the movement was founded in
Kattankudy in 1979, typically intensifies during Ramadan.
Partisan rivalry among local Muslim politicians, who attempt
to manipulate the communal tension for their own personal
political gains, only exacerbates the situation, Wijesinghe
charged.


3. (U) The most recent disturbance followed an alleged
assault by members of the minority sect on a member of the
orthodox community on October 31. Although the police
arrested three suspects, mobs from the majority community
(estimated by police to number about 5,000) responded with a
series of attacks, vandalizing three mosques, two private
homes and two motorcycles belonging to members of the Sufi
sect. Police responded with tear gas to disperse the rioters
and appealed to religious leaders from both communities to
urge an end to the violence. The following night two
unidentified men threw a hand grenade into a
majority-community mosque, filled for evening prayers,
injuring 10. In the ensuing rioting, more mosques, homes and
vehicles belonging to the Sufi sect were damaged and three
policemen injured. A night-time curfew was declared, and Sri
Lankan Army troops and members of the paramilitary Special
Task Force (STF) deployed to assist civil police in restoring
order.


4. (C) Local political and security sources scoffed at
suggestions in the media that the violence in Kattankudy
could spread to other Muslim areas. While a few mosques
belonging to the sect are also located in the neigboring
districts of Ampara and Trincomalee, the friction is
particularly acute in Kattankudy--the most densely populated
Muslim area in the country--because the communities are
squeezed together in tight proximity, DIG Wijesinghe said.
Nor did he seem to find the level of recent violence
especially alarming, observing that "throwing a grenade in
Batticaloa is like throwing a rock" somewhere else. (Note:
As part of the so-called "Eelam" or homeland claimed by the
terrorist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, Batticaloa has
seen a recent upsurge in violence between northern
"headquarters" Tigers and members of a breakaway faction led
by former Tiger Eastern military commander Karuna. End
note.) That said, given the stark theological differences
between the two sects--and the local political rivalries
helping fuel passions in the debate--Wijesinghe sees no
immediate resolution to the long-standing tensions.


5. (C) Comment: Islam in Sri Lanka generally tends to be
moderate, and reports of intra-communal violence relatively
rare. The Muslim political community, on the other hand, has
suffered multiple fractures (no fewer than five political
parties claim to represent the eight percent of Sri Lanka's
population that is Muslim),and it is unfortunate that Muslim
politicians in the area are apparently encouraging even
greater divisiveness within their small and much-exploited
constituency. Given the ready availability of arms and
ammunition in Batticaloa, the politicos' behavior is
particularly irresponsible. While the violence seems to have
abated for now, the sectarian friction adds yet another
potential short fuse to this chronically volatile district.
LUNSTEAD