By  Dilanthi Jayammanne  Courtesy Ceylon Today

Setting aside politics, Britain’s Channel 4 documentary on the 21 April 2019, Easter Sunday carnage, released ahead of the 54th Session of the UN Human Rights Council held in Geneva, possibly reopened the wounds of those impacted by the carnage while triggering a spate of reactions from others.

A stalemate occurred with the country’s leaders taking steps to lift bans imposed on certain extremist organisations and allegedly releasing those who were said to be linked to the heinous crime which claimed the lives of nearly 270 people.

Mixed feelings

The Defence Ministry took hasty measures to issue a statement vehemently rejecting what it termed as reprehensible” allegations made by Britain’s Channel 4 TV network against the senior Sri Lankan military officers over the Easter Sunday Attacks and reiterated the Government’s unwavering” commitment to the truth, justice and the well-being of the nation.

Former Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa denied allegations levelled by the British television programme that the alleged ISIS-enthused militants were used to carry out suicide bombings on Easter Sunday in 2019 to create unrest and insecurity in the country and help him win an election later that year.

He noted that to claim that a group of Islamic extremists launched suicide attacks to make him President was an absurd assumption.

Former President Maithripala Sirisena was ordered by the Supreme Court to pay a sum of Rs 100 million as damages to the victims of Easter Sunday attacks for the reckless” intelligence failure on the part of the Executive. Following the Channel 4 documentary, however, he called for an international probe into the Easter Sunday bombings of 2019, in light of the revelations.

He told the media on Wednesday (13) that although he was accused of several allegations in connection with the terror attacks over the last four years, the British TV channel’s documentary had shed a different light on those who should be held accountable for the attacks.

We are raising our voices too to call for an international probe into the attacks, as proposed by the United Nations,” he said, lamenting that he had been penalised for the past four years. But the Channel 4 documentary clearly notes that what actually took place is something completely different to what was perceived.

Stance of the Sri Lankan Catholic Church

Head of Sri Lanka’s Catholic Church, Colombo Archbishop Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith, who for over four years has been at loggerheads with the Government in addition to being strongly criticised for allegedly taking a political stance, said the Catholic Church of Sri Lanka was prepared to accept the facts that were revealed in the documentary aired on Britain’s Channel 4 on the Easter Sunday terror attacks in 2019, and would accept the findings only following a transparent, independent and honest investigation into them.”

Briefing the media earlier this week Cardinal Ranjith said the probe should be in accordance with international laws and standards to ensure that it is conducted in a transparent, independent manner without political interference.

Cardinal Ranjith said Minister Manusha Nanayakkara had said a Parliamentary Select Committee would be appointed to look into matters that had been revealed in the programme on the Easter Sunday attacks.

But having been through several committees in the past to investigate the events and many recommendations being made by those commissions, no credible and positive action was taken by political authorities on the recommendations,” he said.

He accused the present and the previous government of only paying lip service to the recommendations.

Even the recommendations which were implemented such as the banning of several extremist organisations such as the National Thowheed Jama’ath had been lifted recently,” he said. The Head of Sri Lanka’s Catholic Church said therefore no tangible and credible results would emerge from yet another Parliamentary Select Committee. Instead, it would be a waste of public funds and time.

Independent international investigation team

According to the Catholic Church of Sri Lanka, investigations should be conducted on the findings outlined in the various commission reports already presented. And recommendations stated there need to be implemented, he said.

Cardinal Ranjith said investigations should be conducted by an independent international investigation team” assisted by Sri Lankan officials of the CID whose services were originally sought by the Government and transferred to other areas and posts by biased political authorities.

He said to ensure that the fresh investigation will be independent of officials in the Police and Intelligence who were investigated following the Easter Attacks, they should be suspended or moved out of their present high posts.

Cardinal Ranjith urged President Ranil Wickremesinghe and the Government to carry out these requests. We do not feel that truth and justice will be served to the innocent victims of the 2019 Easter Attacks, unless an absolutely independent, transparent and sincere internationally monitored probe was conducted,” Cardinal Ranjith stressed, noting that the Catholic Church did not believe in mere promises but in action.

Hoodwinking the public with more committees

Neither the Catholic Church nor the people at large can tolerate any more committees being appointed to probe the Easter Sunday killings whether it is a Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI) or Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC), to probe the Channel 4 documentary on the 2019 Easter Sunday terror attacks.

The media at the Colombo Archbishop’s House, Spokesman for the Colombo Archdiocese, Fr. Cyril Gamini Fernando said as much. Though they submitted reports and recommendations, none of them yielded the expected results, he charged, noting that only millions in public funds and precious time had been wasted. Fr. Fernando said at the time the carnage took place President Ranil Wickremesinghe was the Prime Minister in the Government of Good Governance and PSCs were appointed by him at that time.

Therefore, Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith and the Catholic Church of Sri Lanka have serious doubts as to whether another Parliamentary Select Committee would conduct an impartial and honest investigation. Such a committee only aimed at misleading the public while incurring further wastage of time and money. Therefore, the Catholic Church of the country is unwilling to accept such a proposal,” he said.

Internationally-backed probe

The Spokesman for the Colombo Archdiocese said urgent steps should be taken to initiate an unbiased, fair and transparent investigation of unexamined details surrounding the Easter Sunday Attacks. He said the probe should be conducted under the extensive monitoring and supervision of an independent international investigation team.

Fr. Fernando stressed that the investigation team, appointed to conduct the independent probe, should include all investigators who have been transferred to different areas from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), which conducted the initial investigation into the Easter Sunday Attacks. It is apparent that no arrests had been made after these officers had been moved out of the investigation and posted elsewhere, he alleged.

The Spokesman for the Colombo Archdiocese said all officers who were found guilty of having failed to prevent the attack by the Supreme Court but continued to serve in the Police Force should be suspended till the investigations were completed.

RIP

Both the Government and the Catholic Church of Sri Lanka should be able to allow the victims who died in the Easter Attacks to rest in peace and that includes the many children who fell victim to the bombings at the Zion Church in Batticaloa. The injured and the bedridden need to be able to come to terms with their plight instead of being constantly reminded of why they were faced with such an unfortunate future.

But this may never happen as a result of the tug of war between the Government and Sri Lanka’s Catholic Church.

By Dilanthi Jayamanne