Folklore and politics mixin bedevilledSri Lanka

Sri Lanka has deployed soldiers to quell unrest sparked by a fear of night-time prowlers known as “grease devils”, after at least five people died over the past two weeks in a wave of vigilantism and clashes with police across the island nation.

Sri Lanka’s army set up a brigade in Kinniya near the eastern port of Trincomalee, where thousands last week besieged a government office after fighting with the navy in pursuit of a suspected “grease devil”.

The increased deployment came a day after a mob killed a police officer in the north-western town of Puttalam. Troops have remained out in force since Sri Lanka’s government won a 25-year civil war in May 2009 with the Tamil Tiger separatists.

Military spokesman Brigadier Nihal Hapuarachchi said: “The military and the police are doing the patrols in the towns and the areas affected by the incidents in the east, north-west and north.”

More than 30 incidents of violence and vigilantism have been reported in eight districts, primarily in areas inhabited by minority Muslim or Tamil people, as the government and opposition trade blame over the phenomenon.

Traditionally in Sri Lanka, a “grease devil” was a thief who wore only underwear and covered his body in grease to make himself hard to grab, but the new iteration has a more sinister reputation as prowling attacker of women.

“It is a new kind of fear psychosis,” lawyer Gomin Dayasiri, who has often supported the government’s more nationalistic positions, said yesterday.

“It is certainly an organised fear psychosis to destabilise the society.”

The government has said the “grease devil” panic started with criminals taking advantage of traditional beliefs in spirits and devils in Sri Lanka’s rural areas, but has been hijacked by political opponents trying to spread mayhem.