Monk calls for groups to be crushed like the LTTE as he demands Buddhist-led government

The Sinhala nationalist monk Battaramulle Seelarathana, leader of the Jana Setha Peramuna, has claimed that supporters and operatives of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) continue to function in several countries around the world, and called for other groups in Sri Lanka to be suppressed in the same way the LTTE was defeated.

Speaking at a media briefing at the partys office in Colombo on 1 August, Seelarathana said LTTE supporters remained active internationally, and accused Sri Lankan political leaders and the Buddhist clergy of failing to respond adequately to past attacks on Buddhist sites.

The monk further claimed that campaigns on behalf of victims of the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks had achieved significant success, while asking who would speak out for what he described as the destruction suffered by the Sinhalese nation and the Buddhist Sasana. Arguing that Sri Lanka required a "strong leader with backbone", he said the country needed a government led by a Buddhist monk from the Jana Setha Peramuna.

He also criticised the government and security authorities, claiming they were now afraid even of the telephone calls of alleged criminals, and called on the state to take immediate steps to protect the Sinhalese people and the Buddhist Sasana.

A record of Sinhala nationalist agitation

His invocation of the LTTEs defeat as a model carries particular weight given what that defeat entailed. The final phase of the armed conflict in 2009 culminated in the Mullivaikkal genocide, in which tens of thousands of Tamil civilians were killed by Sri Lankan forces, with hospitals and no-fire zones shelled and mass atrocities. No one has been held accountable.

Seelarathana has a long record of Sinhala Buddhist nationalist campaigning. In 2019 he called for continued militarisation and Sinhalisation in Mullaitivu while visiting Kokkilai and Nayaru, where Tamil residents have long resisted Sinhala colonisation and land seizures under the Mahaweli scheme, criticising Tamil politicians for demanding demilitarisation and insisting there was no need to remove the forces from the North.

In March this year he led a small pro-United States and pro-Israel demonstration in Colombo, attended by around six people, at which participants chanted "Victory to America" and "Victory to Israel" and the monk voiced support for Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu, urging Sri Lankans not to forget the assistance both countries had provided during the war against the Tamils.

His party remains a marginal force in Sri Lankan politics. The Jana Setha Peramuna is a registered party with no parliamentary representation.