Dr.P.A.Samaraweera

With the terror attack on Easter Sunday, the death toll had risen to 290. Nearly 500 being injured. It had been reported that 24 suspects are in custody and details about them are not known. The suspicion is on a Muslim terrorist organisation. However, on the day of the attack, Human Right Activists pointed the finger on Buddhists and quoted chapter and verse about attacks on Churches allegedly by Buddhists. They tried in vain to blame the Buddhists for the Easter attack.

As everyone knows, we had similar experiences prior to 2009 by LTTE terrorists. Bombs exploded in buses, trains, bus stations, at Sri Maha Bodiya Anuradhapura, Temple of the Tooth in Kandy, Arantalawa and so on. But the LTTE never attacked a single Catholic Church because their sympathies were with the LTTE. When the LTTE  was having a field day attacking Buddhists and the country, the Church was silent and never condemned the LTTE. It is an open secret that the Catholic Church had their sympathies with the LTTE. Some perspective observers have publicly accused the church of being the invisible hand supporting the LTTE’s violent campaign to destroy the unitary state, establish another sovereign state called ‘Eelam’ and in turn reduce the power of the majority Sinhalese and that of the Buddhists. Before the General Election in 2000, it was reported that the Catholic Bishop of Jaffna had requested all Tamil political parties to cease functioning so that the LTTE could act as the sole representative of the Tamil people.

We know of instances where the LTTE paid Christian Clerics from western countries to visit Sri Lanka for short visits to study the ground situation  and then go back and preach in seminars about Sinhalese Buddhists attacking ‘Tamils’ and that the ethnic crisis is a conflict between Buddhists and Tamils and not between the State and terrorists! These Clerics wrote adverse reports heavily tilted in favour of the LTTE. Funds collected by the Clerics from these charities, seminars and functions went to the terrorists.

This Easter, for the first time, the Catholic Church had experienced getting attacked by terrorists and given a taste of terrorism. Buddhists experienced this for 30 years. However, today Sri Lanka condemns the cowardly attack on innocent civilians.