Responding to the attack on unarmed civilians demanding uncontaminated water in Weliweriya, the Lawyers Collective today strongly condemned what it termed as “the Government’s continuous ferocity against peaceful protesters”.

The Government has displayed total disrespect to the constitutional guarantees on civil liberties of its own citizens, the group said in a press release. 

They said that evidence clearly establishes that “deplorable levels of force” including live bullets were used on the unarmed villagers and that assailants also assaulted journalists covering the event and grabbed their cameras by force.

The Lawyers Collective urged stern actions against those responsible for ordering and carrying out this “brutal attack” and stressed that the legal fraternity urges the Government to control its military and ensure that they are used for legitimate purposes only.

“In a constitutional democracy, attacking peaceful unarmed protesters or disrupting legitimate civil activities of the citizens is not a legitimate objective of the Armed Forces or the law enforcement authorities,” the release said.
 
The collective also noted that the functions of the police are increasingly being usurped by the military and said: “lawyers are shocked but not at all surprised with the dubious post-event pronouncements of the State media and Government politicians to justify the attack on civilians.”

The Government has been also known to falsely brand the dissenting voices as “terrorists, funded by foreign elements etc” and we urge public not to be misled by such false propaganda, it said.

The Lawyers Collective, while standing by the victims and their families, said it will take whatever action is possible within the legal framework to ensure justice for them.