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Cardinal imposes ‘pre-condition’ to meet G.L. Peiris

02 Sep 2021

  • Insists on Easter CoI recommendations’ implementation 
BY Pamodi Waravita  The Catholic Church has stated that Archbishop of Colombo Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith would agree to a meeting with Foreign Affairs Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris if the Government takes actions to implement the recommendations of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (CoI) that probed the bombings, prior to the meeting.  Prof. Peiris has sought to meet the Archbishop of Colombo, Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith, to brief the latter about the Government’s actions concerning meting out justice for victims of the Easter Sunday terror attacks of 2019, in order to avoid any pressure being exerted on Sri Lanka by the international community.  The Parish Priest of the St. Anne’s Church, Kurana (Negombo), Reverend and Father Cyril Gamini Fernando, speaking on behalf of Archbishop Ranjith said yesterday (1) in a media statement yesterday that although the Archbishop is open for a discussion, it would only take place if certain conditions are fulfilled prior.  “In the Archbishop’s response to Prof. Peiris, he stated that the meeting can only take place if certain conditions are met beforehand. It is important to build the public’s, especially the Catholic community’s trust about the investigations. The public must see that there is at least a start to implement the recommendations made by the CoI. The Government is responsible for building this trust,” pointed out Fernando.  However, Fernando emphasised that recent statements made by the Presidential Secretariat’s Legal Division and the Inspector General of Police (IGP) C.D. Wickramaratne had betrayed that trust.  The IGP last week said that 311 suspects have been arrested as per impartial investigations conducted into the attacks. He has stated that the attacks were well planned. However, several senior Police officers, including Senior Deputy Inspector General of Police (SDIG) Deshabandu Tennakoon, met with Siam Sect Asgiri Chapter Mahanayaka (Chief Prelate) Ven. Warakagoda Dhammasiddhi Gnanarathana Thera, where they had pointed out that a certain injustice has been caused to certain Police officials through the investigations into the terror attacks, particularly through the final report of the CoI. SDIG Tennakoon told The Morning last week that it is not fair for Police officials to be blamed for not having been able to prevent the attacks.  On 21 April 2019, Easter Sunday, three Churches (the St. Sebastian’s Church in Katuwapitiya, the St. Anthony’s Church in Kochchikade, and the Zion Church in Batticaloa) and three luxury hotels in Colombo (the Cinnamon Grand, The Kingsbury, and the Shangri-La) were targeted in a series of coordinated Islamist terrorist 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 at least 45 foreign nationals, while at least 500 were injured. All 8 of the suicide bombers in the attacks were Sri Lankan citizens associated with the National Thowheed Jama’ath (NTJ) organisation founded by the suicide bomber at the Shangri-La Hotel, 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 Attorney General (AG) has informed of the indictment of several suspects in connection with the incidents.  


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