R. S Priyangani is defiant. ‘They killed my husband like a dog but he died like a lion’.
She says his killers must be held accountable and she wants justice for her husband.
It has been one week since her husband 42– year old Chaminda Lakshan died after police opened fire on protesters in Rambukkana last Tuesday. The protestors were asking for fuel.
‘They were asking for cheaper fuel not only for Rambukkana but for the whole of Sri Lanka. They wanted it at the price it was sold before the previous day’s price hike. This protest was not for the struggle,’ clarifies one eyewitness referring to the protests that are currently going on in the country for President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to step down. Eyewitnesses speak on condition of anonymity.
The police said it will start an inquiry at the level of its headquarters and the Ministry of Public Security appointed a three– member committee last week to conduct its own inquiry into the incident. At least 21 people including police officers were injured and between three and four protesters who were seriously injured needed ICU treatment following the shooting. The OIC of the Rambukkana Police Chief Inspector Kingsley Herath, the Superintendent of Police one of Kegalle Police Wickremerachchi and the Senior Superintendent of Police of the Kegalle Police K. B Keerthiratne were transferred to police field force headquarters following the incident.
It is not only the dead man’s family who wants justicebut also the country. A mock funeral was held in front of the Prime Minister’s official residence at Temple Trees in Colombo on Saturday to coincide with Chaminda’s funeral in Naarranbadda, a sleepy backwater in Rambukkana some 90 kilometers northeast of Colombo. Later this week, a satyagraha will be held in Rambukkana to reinforce the messageof the need for justice to be delivered.
‘Justice has to be done’, says one of the organiser’s of the satyagraha who was also with Chaminda on the day that he died.
‘Chaminda did not take part in the protest. He had come to the fuel station to get fuel for his motor bicycle. He had parked it and was standing on a side. He was wearing his helmet. I was nearby and I realized that he had been shot in the lower area of his stomach after the police started shooting at the protesters. He was injured but we were not allowed to remove him’.
According to Chaminda’s wife her husband left home at about 12- 12. 30 pm on the day that he died. He went on his motor bicycle to the fuel station about eightkilometers away on the main Rambukkana Road to get fuel for the bike.
Locals who had gathered at the top of the turnoff to Chaminda’s home on the day of his funeral last Saturday spoke how hundreds, some say as many as 800 vehicles including three wheelers and motorbicycles, had built up at the fuel station by then. They had parked their vehicles and some had been waiting for fuel for at least three days. ‘People were eating inside their vehicles and three wheelers. They didn’t want to move from where they were because they didn’t want to lose their place in the queue’. The clergy and the Rambukkana police were also with the people and there was camaraderie among all.
While the people had been waiting some of them and Chief Inspector Kingsley Herath of the Rambukkana police had tried to negotiate with representatives of the fuel station to sell the fuel at the old price but the latter had been unwilling. The fuel station is owned by the Rambukkana co–operative society and its chairperson is the private secretary to the governor of the North Central province Kanaka Herath.
At about 1. 00 am on the 19th the peaceful wait for fuel turned into a protest. Several entry roads to Rambukkana were blocked. The peoples’ mood changed after news reached them that a bowser of fuel which was coming to Rambukkana had stopped enroute in Warakapola. They suspected its arrival in Rambukkana had been deliberately delayed to make it possible for the fuel to be sold at a higher price. The Lanka India Oil Company and Ceypetco, the country’s main suppliers of petroleum, had announced a price hike in fuel just hours earlier.
Despite this everyone remained calm and the togetherness continued. The protesters cooked milkrice and noodles on the road and shared it with everyone who was there including the police. A nearby hotel provided the cooking utensils and many contributed to get the provisions. ‘We were even planning what to cook for dinner’, said an eyewitnesswho spoke to Counterpoint. ‘It was very peaceful. The crowd was supportive and even supporters of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) were helping to organize the distribution of food and water. Until then it was not a politicised protest’.
When a fuel bowser finally arrived in Rambukkanamid– morning on the 19th it was stopped at the railway crossing, within sight of the fuel station on the opposite side of the road. Eyewitnesses explained how protesters had taken steps to protect the bowsers from being damaged. Another eyewitness who spoke to Counterpoint explained how a motor bicycle had been placed in front of the bowser to prevent anyone from going near it.
An eyewitness who spoke to Counterpoint said how he had begged the Rambukkana police to distribute the fuel as this would have diffused the tension which was brewing. ‘The people just wanted the fuel because it would have helped them to get their food and other essentials. This is all they wanted’.
Sometime during the early afternoon the riot control unit of the Kegalle police which had come to the location with other police officers started using tear gas on the protesters who by then had started moving to the center of town from the peripheries. Eyewitnesses estimate the crowd to have swelled to between 2000- 3000 and the police officers who had come from outside the area waded into them. After using tear gas, the police opened fire using live bullets. By then both the police and protesters had also been throwing stones at each other.
An eyewitness told Counterpoint how the police ‘surrendered’ and came towards the protesters with raised arms in between the tear gas and firing. ‘Two police officers from the Rambukkana police, a police officer called Dharmaratne and the Crime OIC Bandara walked towards the protesters with their arms raised and said they were ‘surrendering’ because they had run out of tear gas. But after a while the police opened fire. The brief hiatus was for the police to replenish the tear gas’. This witness remembers two rounds of tear gas and three rounds of firing. The ‘surrender’ took place after the first round of tear gas. ‘It was a ploy to mislead the protesters. When the police continued to shoot after Chaminda fell I kept shouting at them to stop shooting. From the sound of the shot which killed him, I believe Chaminda was shot at close range’. This eyewitness also sustained a head injury.
‘My husband was shot from behind’, says Priyangani. ‘Only cowards will do it. The police were chasing people and shooting them’. She is convinced her husband was a target. She also doesn’t understand why the police did not aim at the foot if they wanted to shoot someone.
Chaminda was a close friend of former UNP MP for the Kegalle district and ganizer for Rambukkana Sandeeth Samarasinghe. ‘We grew up together’, says Samarasinghe. ‘Later he would help to organize the activities of the Party’. Chaminda was self –employed and did various jobs to look after his wife and two children who are 20 and 15 years old.
According to an eyewitness the crowd started to disperse after the police used tear gas and shot at them. He points out that the police would have had to stop using the tear gas and shooting eventually because it was also getting dark and visibility was reducing. There had also been a power cut in the area and the crowd had to wait until the power was restored before they could do anything.
One eyewitness said that the three– wheeler which was set alight was parked at the nearby quarters of the Ceylon Government Railway. He said it was a police officer himself who said it should be parked there for safety. Other vehicles too had been parked in the vicinity and this eyewitness questions why the three wheeler had been singled out.
The injured, most of whom had injuries to the lower abdomen, were rushed from the scene to the Rambukkana Hospital in three wheelers and vehicles that were nearby. An eyewitness said the police had positioned themselves around the Hospital and were allowing only the injured to go in.
The police in a statement which was made soon after the incident admitted they had opened fire at the protesters and that it was after using tear gas, rubber bullets and firing into the air. An eyewitness told Counterpoint he heard a police officer giving the order to shoot. The police say they used minimum force to disperse the crowd.
These eyewitnesses say that no warning shots were fired into the air. One eyewitness said that not even rubber bullets were fired.
‘This issue was something which could have been resolved easily through a discussion. Until the police officers from Kegalle came it was a peaceful protest’. Eyewitnesses allege that the Governor’s men and the secretary to the Minister for Transport and IndustriesDilum Amunugama were involved in the shooting which disrupted what until then had been a non-violent protest.
At Chaminda’s funeral on Saturday locals who had come to pay their respects pointed out how other protests that have been held in the Rambukkana area have ended peacefully. Even on Saturday, a group of protestors who had gathered in the local town area to protest about Chaminda’s death being a planned killing, dispersed peacefully after their protest
Days before the funeral the president’s powers under the Public Security Act were invoked to call out the tri forces to maintain law and order in the area but there was no visible military or police presence. The only clue about the funeral were the flags and banners which signposted the way to Chaminda’s home and the backhoe which was preparing the ground to lay him. ‘The army and SLPP supporters tried to get involved with the funeral arrangements’, said one eyewitness. ‘It was they who put up the huts for mourners who were coming to pay their final respects to Chaminda. I see it as an indirect way to intimidate people but it didn’t get traction which is a good thing’.
Priyangani vows to fight on. ‘Even if I die before the killers are caught, I will return to haunt them’, she says.
Her husband’s final resting place, not far from her home, will be a constant reminder.
