AS SRI LANKA marked four years, on Easter Day, since the bombings that killed 261 people, the Roman Catholic Church demanded a UN-led international investigation into the attack.
Fr Julian Patrick Perera, from the legal team of the archdiocese of Colombo, told Vatican News that justice still had not prevailed.
Three churches and three hotels in Colombo were targeted in attacks on 21 April 2019, Easter Day (News, 26 April 2019). The Sri Lankan government said that the suicide bombers carrying out the attacks were all members of National Thowheeth Jama’ath: an Islamist militant group.
Several suspects blew themselves up, with their children, after a police stakeout that followed the bombings. Others were arrested.
The trial of 25 men arrested in connection with the bombings began in 2021, but was adjourned. More than 23,000 charges have been filed against the suspects, and 1215 witnesses have been called to testify.
The RC Church joined relatives of the victims, and the Bar Association of Sri Lanka filed a petition against the then President, Maithripala Sirisena, for negligence, after it emerged that there had been intelligence warning of attacks.
The Supreme Court of Sri Lanka ordered Mr Sirisena to pay 100 million rupees in compensation to the victims. A presidential panel of inquiry also found him guilty of failing to prevent the attacks, although Mr Sirisena has continued to plead lack of foreknowledge.
In an interview with Vatican News to mark the anniversary, Fr Perera said that there had been “no proper investigation completed on the whole issue” of the Easter bombings.
He suggested that there was evidence of a cover-up, and pointed to the removal of several key investigators from the case. “There is also a kind of an eyewash lawsuit that has been brought against about 25 members of the so-called terrorist movement. But those charges are very surface-level,” Fr Perera said.
The RC Church is also putting pressure on the UN to carry out an independent investigation. Fr Perera presented the case this month to the UN Human Rights Council.
He told Vatican News: “Winning a case is a job and a half. Then again, at international level, it will be even more difficult. But I think this is our Christian calling. And, in our prophetic role, I believe that we have to do it.”
The current President, Ranil Wickremesinghe, issued his own message on Easter Day, promising justice for all victims of the bombings. “The legal proceedings related to this tragic incident are being processed independently and impartially, without any influence. The necessary groundwork towards this end has been laid, to ensure justice for all the victims,” he said.
“I pledge my unwavering commitment to ensuring the security of our country, by preventing any recurrence of such heinous acts.”