Sri Lankan government supporters yesterday attacked protesting Buddhist monks and villagers with clubs as they marched against what they say is a plan to take over private land for an industrial zone in which China is to have a major stake.
Police intervened and separated the attackers, but a scheduled opening of the industrial zone by Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickeremesinghe was held up due to the unrest.
The government has signed a framework agreement for a 99-year lease of the Hambantota port with a company in which China is to have 80 percent ownership.
Officials also plan to set up the nearby industrial zone where Chinese companies are to be invited to set up factories.
The violence erupted in Amabalantota, about 22km from Hambantota, when villagers and monks marched near the opening ceremony demanding their residential and farm lands be spared.
It was unclear if anyone was injured.
A court has issued a restraining order on the protest, saying it could lead to unrest.
China invested more than US$1.2 billion in the port in what some analysts call its “string of pearls” strategy in countries surrounding its rival, India. Although the project made losses since 2010, the Sri Lankan government, at first critical of the enterprise, approached China seeking help to make it viable.
Hambantota District lawmaker D.V. Chanaka, one of the protest organizers, said he fears the port area would become a “Chinese colony.”
He said more than 10,000 people, including 3,000 monks, were expected at the protest.
Police commandos patrolled the streets of Hambantota, about 240km southeast of the capital Colombo, set up roadblocks and stationed water cannons.
“We are against leasing the lands where people live and do their farming, while there are identified lands for an industrial zone,” Chanaka said. “When you give away such a vast area of land you can’t stop the area becoming a Chinese colony.”
UNDER NEGOTIATION
After the lease expires, it can be negotiated for another 99 years, according to the framework agreement, whose terms are still being negotiated.
The Sri Lankan government has proposed to lease another 6,070 hectares in Hambantota District and adjoining Moneragala District for an industrial zone.
Reverend Magama Mahanama, from an organization calling itself the Monks’ Organization to Protect National Assets, said that the clergy following an ancient tradition would issue a decree to the Sri Lankan government to stop the leasing.
Historically, kings in predominantly Buddhist Sri Lanka are said to have abided by decrees issued by Buddhist monks.
“It’s a way of conveying the message that the monks are not for it,” Mahanama said. “Ninety-nine years means at least two generations. When they [the Chinese] take root here, what’s the guarantee that we will have it back? There is a major threat of cultural erosion and demographic change.”
Wickremesinghe, speaking to reporters earlier this week, said the partnership arrangement was necessary to free the country from the debt incurred to build the port.
He blamed the debt on former Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, whose government was friendly to Beijing.
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