Protestors charged with alarming Indians

Christine Jayasinghe

Two Sri Lankan pro-democracy protesters who ran on to the pitch during a Sri Lanka-India match have been charged with alarming touring Indian cricketers and making them lose.

Police produced the two demonstrators in court, on Monday, where they were charged with holding anti-government placards and frightening the Indians.

The two men ran on to the playing area at the R Premadasa stadium on Sunday evening, briefly holding up the one-day international in the ongoing triangular Coca-Cola series.

One placard read, "Defeat dictatorship, madness and protect democracy" while the other, in Sinhalese, urged citizens to protect democracy. The protest followed President Chandrika Kumaratunga's decision to suspend Parliament to prevent her minority government from toppling.

The two were quickly whisked away by police while the state television station, Rupavahini, almost immediately suspended the live telecast for a few minutes.

"We have charged them on three main counts, criminal trespass, obstruction of the match and displaying anti-government posters," said police inspector S A S Suraweera.

Suraweera said he had also told the magistrate the Indian team was so petrified they could not win the match. "They were very scared because (captain Saurav) Ganguly's life is under threat," he said.

Defense lawyers, however, said their clients were only making a political statement and were not trying to disrupt the match. They were allowed personal bail of Rs.20,000 each.

India lost to Sri Lanka by six wickets. Amay Khurasiya and Yuvraj Singh were at the wickets when the demonstrators, who had entered the grounds holding valid tickets, interrupted play.

Some 250 policemen were deployed to guard the stadium while the match was in progress. At the Indians' request, a special 24-hour-guard has been deployed to protect Ganguly, who is under a kidnap threat from Kashmiri separatists.

Almost 100 plainclothes men are guarding the plush Taj Samudra where the Indians and the other foreign team, the New Zealanders, are staying.

Indo-Asian News Service