Probe begins in Sri Lanka's violence against Muslims
Calm was beginning to return to violence-hit Muslim neighborhoods in Sri Lanka's Kandy region with many shops reopening as army reinforcements largely put an end to Buddhist mob attacks that hit the area.
Sri Lanka's President Maithripala Sirisena constituted a three member inquiry commission to probe nationalist violence against the island's Muslim minority.
The commission made up of three retired judges, will inquire and assess the loss of lives, damage to property and also what laws were broken and any lapses by authorities, and who instigated the violence. The commission will also recommend measures to prevent such happenings in the future.
Violence promoted by sections of Sri Lanka's mainly Sinhalese Bhuddist majority against a Muslim minority led to deaths and loss of property.
Sinhalese are overwhelmingly Buddhists, while Tamils are mostly Hindu, Muslim and Christian.
Sri Lanka has long faced a bitter ethnic divide between the majority Sinhalese and the minority Tamils, fueling a decades-long civil war as Tamil militants tried to carve out their own homeland. The war ended in 2009.
Since then a religious divide has grown, with the rise of Buddhist nationalist groups who accuse minority Muslims of stealing from Buddhist temples or desecrating them, or forcing people to convert to Islam. Muslims also own many of Sri Lanka's small shops, and many Muslims suspect small-town jealousy has led to some attacks.
The commission made up of three retired judges, will inquire and assess the loss of lives, damage to property and also what laws were broken and any lapses by authorities, and who instigated the violence. The commission will also recommend measures to prevent such happenings in the future.
Violence promoted by sections of Sri Lanka's mainly Sinhalese Bhuddist majority against a Muslim minority led to deaths and loss of property.
Sinhalese are overwhelmingly Buddhists, while Tamils are mostly Hindu, Muslim and Christian.
Sri Lanka has long faced a bitter ethnic divide between the majority Sinhalese and the minority Tamils, fueling a decades-long civil war as Tamil militants tried to carve out their own homeland. The war ended in 2009.
Since then a religious divide has grown, with the rise of Buddhist nationalist groups who accuse minority Muslims of stealing from Buddhist temples or desecrating them, or forcing people to convert to Islam. Muslims also own many of Sri Lanka's small shops, and many Muslims suspect small-town jealousy has led to some attacks.
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