State of emergency in Sri Lanka after riots

colombo - From our editorial office abroad

The flame hit the pot after the funeral of a Buddhist truck driver last Sunday. It would have been killed by four Muslims. A day later an angry mob pulled into a Muslim quarter and there destroyed shops and a mosque. One case has certainly fallen.

The police would not have put the rioters in the way, Muslim leaders say. The government in Colombo would in any case do too little to tackle the violence against Muslims.

There have been tensions between Muslims and Buddhists in Sri Lanka for much longer. The second group is by far the majority on the island; about two-thirds of the Sri Lankans are Buddhists. They accuse Muslims of making forced conversions and destroying Buddhist shrines. There is also criticism of the influx of Muslim Rohingya refugees from Myanmar.

According to President Sirisena, the riots are driven by whipped messages on Facebook. The responsible online inciters will be addressed, he promised.

It is for the first time since the end of the civil war in Sri Lanka that the state of emergency has been declared. This struggle was between ethnic Sri Lankans and the Tamils, a mostly Hindu population group.

De Telegraaf is looking for Dutch tourists who are in the country and want to tell about any unrest. Are you currently in Kandy or elsewhere and do you notice something of the riots? Send an e-mail to call @ telegraph. NL