UN rights expert says ethnoreligious tensions are ‘simmering’ in Sri lanka after ISIL-claimed Easter bombings.
The Easter bombings led to anti-Muslim riots in May and were partly blamed on Buddhist groups. [File:AP]
A United Nations human rights expert has called on Sri Lanka to take urgent action on “hate propaganda targeting Muslim communities” following a spate of deadly attacks on churches and hotels on Easter Sunday.
Ahmed Shaheed, the UN special rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, issued the call on Monday at the end of a 12-day mission to the Buddhist-majority country in the Indian Ocean.
He said there was a “serious deficit of trust among ethnoreligious communities” in the wake of the ISIL-claimed attacks in April.
More than 250 people were killed in the bombings, the deadliest since the end of a 26-year-civil war against Tamil separatist fighters in 2009.
“While the government promptly brought the situation more or less under control after the bomb blasts, many religious communities remain very concerned about their security because of incitement to hatred and violence by some religious extremists,” Shaheed said in a statement. Continue reading Sri Lanka: after murdering 250 Christians, Moslems whine about “hate propaganda”