Mass roundup in Sri Lankan capital: a sharp warning to the working class

The July 3 military-police attack on thousands of slum dwellers in the Colombo suburbs is a sharp warning to the working class in Sri Lanka and internationally. The brutal assault, followed by the roundup of the entire adult population in the Mattakkuliya area, has demonstrated the police-state methods being brought forward against ordinary working people in the “economic war” declared by President Mahinda Rajapakse’s government.

The police launched the provocation against local residents by forcibly arresting and badly beating a young three-wheel taxi driver. When hundreds of people protested in front of the area’s police station, defence authorities immediately sent the police riot squad and soldiers to attack them. The police and the army went on a rampage, smashing houses and vehicles, and physically attacking and terrorising local residents. Read more>>>