GGG Raid an attack on people of SL - FUTA

COLOMBO (News 1st); The Federation of University Teachers’ Associations says Friday the 22nd of July is a dark day for democracy that will stand out in the history of this country, noting that when the protestors had informed authorities that they would leave contested locations today, and the removal of banners lay as signals of their departure, the repressive arms of the state chose to brutally attack the GotaGoGama (GGG) at Galle Face. 

As the national trade union representing university academics, which has stood firmly with the people’s struggle for democracy, the Federation of University Teachers’ Associations (FUTA) strongly condemns these brutal attacks by the armed forces on GGG and the senselessness of violence meted out on GGG protestors. This violence is an attack on all the people of Sri Lanka who have been demanding democratic system change. 

"The new President, Ranil Wickremesinghe has now clearly demonstrated the type of rule that we can expect from him. This attack on Galle Face has been sanctioned by Emergency regulations providing greater powers to the military to maintain “public order”. In short, this is President Wickremesinghe’s first onslaught on our democracy under his direct rule and will remain a blot on his legacy," it added.

FUITA said the President cannot and will not be permitted to continue this outrage on the rights of citizens, nor to irrevocably destroy basic democratic norms and decency through the arbitrary use of military force.

The attacks on GGG require a reckoning of how this moment came to be. Ranil Wickramasinghe gained the opportunity to become president because of a people’s movement that condemned the very type of rule that he has now espoused, it added.

Rather than acknowledging the role this movement unwittingly played in his ascendancy, Wickremesinghe’s deployment of the military in this manner fails even to acknowledge the pain and suffering that led to the protests throughout the country and the creation of the GGG sites, it further said.

Artificial stability enforced through military power and attacks on dissenters has the dangers of shifting the protest movement underground with catastrophic consequences as we have learned from our history. FUTA said it stands with the protestors who have been attacked today and on the side of democracy. 

FUTA renews a pledge to work with all trade unions and people’s movements to mobilize support that will take forward further struggles to protect the democratic rights and freedoms of all the people in this country.