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Cardinal complains to global community

09 Sep 2021

  • Urges foreign govts. to pressure GoSL
  • Slams alleged Vatican plans
  • Foreign Ministry denies PM meeting Pope
BY Pamodi Waravita Archbishop of Colombo His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith yesterday (8) revealed that the Catholic Church has told the international community that justice has not been meted out to the victims of the Easter Sunday attacks of 2019 and that there are attempts by the Government to undermine the investigation. The Archbishop made these remarks at a press conference held yesterday with regard to news reports that the Government has sought an audience with Pope Francis at the Vatican, the centre of the Roman Catholic Church, to brief him on the progress made in the investigation into the attacks. “We did not want to go before the international community but we were pushed into doing so as we saw media reports claiming that Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and Foreign Minister Prof. G.L. Pieris are planning on seeking an audience with the Pope at the Vatican this week. Thus, we informed the international community that we don’t see any justice being meted out to the victims of the Easter Sunday bombings and that we are seeing attempts by the Government to undermine the investigation. We condemn this underhand method adopted by the Government to go behind our backs to the international community,” claimed the Archbishop. He added that it is the right of the public to know the masterminds behind these attacks, including members of the international community whose family members died as a result of the attacks, but that the Government is attempting to mislead the international community. “A total of 47 foreigners from 14 countries were killed in the attacks. I want to ask the international community to please defend their citizens who died here. Those governments must rise up and call upon our Government to conduct a transparent and independent investigation into this,” he stressed. According to the Archbishop, he had on a previous occasion informed the representatives of the Vatican who deal with matters related to justice and peace about the Church’s concerns and they had assured him that they were prepared to present these concerns to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva, Switzerland. “We only have to present these concerns through that method to Geneva. If the Government goes to the international community, we will also go there. After seeing news reports that the Prime Minister is to visit the Vatican, members of our community called us and asked us as to whether we would support this action by the Government. That is why we wanted to clarify our stance and put an end to this speculation.” The Archbishop stressed that if the law of the country is being upheld properly, then a leader with a backbone would be able to take legal action against guilty individuals who are even sitting within the same political camp. Referring to former Attorney General (AG) President’s Counsel Dappula De Livera’s comments that the Easter Sunday attacks were a “grand conspiracy”, the Archbishop said that he agreed with the statement as attacks of this scale would require long-term planning, brainwashing, and well-funded technology, as well as a conviction to die by suicide. However, in a press release issued yesterday following the Cardinal’s press conference, the Foreign Ministry said: “At no stage has the Prime Minister requested nor has he received an invitation to visit the Vatican for an audience with the Pope.” In a press release the Ministry further mentioned that the Premier and Prof. Peiris are only due to make a short visit to Bologna, Italy to deliver the keynote address at the opening session of an international symposium at the Bologna University. On 21 April 2019, Easter Sunday, three churches (St. Sebastian’s Church in Katuwapitiya, St. Anthony’s Church in Kochchikade, and Zion Church in Batticaloa) and three luxury hotels in Colombo (Cinnamon Grand Colombo, The Kingsbury Colombo, and Shangri-La Colombo) were targeted in a series of co-ordinated suicide bombings. Later that day, another two bomb explosions took place at a house in Dematagoda and the Tropical Inn Lodge in Dehiwala. A total of 269 people excluding the bombers were killed in the bombings, including about 45 foreign nationals, while at least 500 were injured. All eight of the suicide bombers in the attacks were Sri Lankan citizens associated with the National Thowheeth Jama’ath (NTJ) organisation founded by the suicide bomber at Shangri-La Colombo, Mohamed Cassim Mohamed Zaharan alias Zaharan Hashim. Since then, the Catholic Church has organised a number of protests demanding justice for the victims of the terror attacks, the most recent of which was the black flag protest on 21 August 2021 over what the Catholic Church calls the continued inaction of the Government regarding the prosecution of the perpetrators behind the attacks. The AG has, however, informed of the indictment of several suspects in connection with the incidents.


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