Accusing the government of answering pleas for drinking water by raining down bullets on innocent people, the UNP today said that the ruling regime has proven by action that it is the worst and most “savage” government to ever exist in the world.

Condemning the government’s reaction to a simple request made by the residents of Rathupaswala, Sri Lanka’s major opposition party stated that the entire world should denounce this inhumane and uncivilized act.

The death of the17-year-old student, K.A.D. Akila Dinesh, in the shooting clearly shows that the current regime has responded to people asking for water by used the army to illegally rain down bullets on them, UNP General Secretary Tissa Attanayake said.

This proves that the lives of the country’s children don’t count for a cent to the “sensitive fathers and uncles of the Rajapaksa government,” he said in a statement issued today.

Attanayake said that according to information available so far one person has died and 34 have been injured, 4 of them critically, after security forces personnel clashed with protestors in Weliweriya.

The United National Party also condemned the attack on media personnel covering the incident, saying that journalists were “targeted prey” at the clash.

It was clear for even a child that the request for clean drinking water by the residents of Rathupaswala was completely a matter of civilian life and that they were not at all killer terrorists who took up arms, the UNP General Secretary said.

“Therefore only police involvement was required,” he said, adding that instead the government used the military and responded in a way more than what was necessary.

He charged that opening fire on unarmed citizens was another step in the planned “militarization” of the country.  

The UNP parliamentarian also accused the high-ranking authorities in the government of completely destroying the good opinion people had on soldiers, by ordering them to respond to calls for water with bullets.

He claimed that the government plotting to turn soldiers, who were then regarded as heroes, into “betrayers of the people” today.

He pointed out that it is the Rajapaksa government which is discrediting the soldiers and not the artists responsible for the movie ‘Flying Fish’.

Tissa Attanayake also questioned whether it was the new Army Chief who ordered this “inhumane act” on the day he assumed duties or whether it was another superior authority.

He stated that the UNP will continue to be attentive to see whether the Army Chief will reveal the answer to this question, through the board of inquiry appointed by him to probe the incident, and thereby “erase the black mark” left on the country’s army.