Sri Lanka: Catholic Church Says Army Killed Unarmed Protesters
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Version 0 of 1. The Roman Catholic Church in Sri Lanka accused the military on Wednesday of shooting unarmed protesters last week and desecrating a church by entering it with weapons and attacking people who sought refuge there. Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith made the accusations in a message read at the funeral of an 18-year-old high school student who was among three people fatally shot last Thursday. Residents of Weliweriya town, northeast of the capital, Colombo, and surrounding villages were protesting discharges of chemical waste from a factory that were polluting drinking water. Witnesses and television reports said the military shot at the protesters and attacked them with poles, killing two teenagers and a 29-year-old man. Government ministers said the military was acting in self-defense because protesters threw gasoline bombs and shot at them. |