200 people reportedly attacked a children’s home run by the Dutch Reformed Church.
After forcing their way into the complex, the crowd, accompanied by three Buddhist monks, "assaulted staff…threatened to kill the house parents…and planted a Buddhist flag
on the roof of the building," said UK-based human rights group Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) in a statement to BosNewsLife.
CSW, which has close contacts with Christians in the region, said the mob also threw stones at the house and broke roof tiles and rainwater gutters. The fence surrounding the property was reportedly completely destroyed.
The attack on Sunday, August 6, came after posters were put up demanding that the Dutch Reformed Church cease renovation work on the orphanage, investigators said. The building was said to have been under renovation at the time of the attack, and no children were present.
"BURNED ALIVE"
In a statement, the National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka (NCEASL) said the staff of the children’s home were previously warned that if they did not leave the premises, they would be "burned alive". The "house parents" fled on Sunday night, August 6, CSW said.
The children’s home was founded in 1982 and is built on land owned by the Dutch Reformed Church, one of the oldest denominations in Sri Lanka with a history of over 300 years. Local Christians reported the incident to police, but it was not immediately clear what, if anything, had been done to arrest suspects. The NCEASL has urged the Sri Lankan Government to "take immediate action to prevent such acts of violence and intimidation."
CSW Advocacy Director Tina Lambert told BosNewsLife her group remained "extremely concerned about the continuing violence against Christians in Sri Lanka." She said the "latest incident, in which child care workers have been threatened, is unacceptable and we urge the Sri Lankan authorities to bring the perpetrators of such violence to justice."
PERSECUTION REPORTS
The latest incident has added to concern over reports of persecution. CSW said earlier that in the first five months of this year alone there were total of 30 reported incidents of violence against Christians and an increasing number of threats made. In a meeting of about 50 pastors, roughly half told CSW they had suffered physical persecution, "including arson, assault and the destruction of homes and church buildings," the group claimed.
The reported violence against Christians also coincides with debates on the latest draft of a controversial ‘Bill for the Prohibition of Forcible Conversion,’ that would make Buddhism "the state religion" on the Southeast Asian island.
Previous proposals backed by the influential Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) or ‘National Heritage Party’ and the Jathika Sanga Sammelaneya or ‘National Buddhist Convention’ organizations called for up to five years and/or high fines for anyone found guilty of converting others "by force or by allurement or by any fraudulent means." The law also encourages members of the public to report cases of suspected forced conversion.
There has been international concern that this could mean serious problems for especially evangelical Christians who view spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ as part of God’s calling. Nearly 70 percent of Sri Lanka’s over 20 million people are Buddhists, roughly six percent are Christians, said the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). (With reports from Sri Lanka and BosNewsLife Research).
