COLOMBO (UCAN): At the beginning of each Christmas season, the sound of can be are heard all over Sri Lanka’s Negombo town. But this year, the town is silent.
It has been 19 months since bombs exploded in several places, including Negombo’s St. Sebastian Church on 2019 Easter Sunday morning, killing 279 people (Sunday Examiner, 28 April 2019).
But the perpetrators “have not been brought to justice. All those who lost their parents and children still spend their days in tears,” Surani R. Fernando, a Sunday school teacher in Negombo, said.
“When will we catch those behind these bombers?” asked Fernando, who helps bomb victims in Negombo.
“It seems that politicians from time to time use the victims to establish their power. They don’t seem to be doing anything for the victims,” she said.
A Presidential Commission of Inquiry was appointed to investigate the serial bomb explosions that shocked the nation on 21 April 2019. It handed over its interim report to the president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, in December last year.
The previous government was blamed for its inability to prevent the bombings despite prior intelligence being made available on the impending attacks.
Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith said there is a question as to whether there is a satisfactory investigation into the financing and sponsorship of the attack.
“Those responsible for the Easter bombing must be punished and if not, an alternative course of action will have to be taken,” the cardinal said on December 4.
Cardinal Ranjith urged that the investigation not be pushed back and that no attempt should be made to cover up the incident through political deals.
A group of nine suicide bombers, affiliated with local Islamist extremist group National Thawheed Jamaath, targeted three churches and three luxury hotels.
Public Security minister, Sarath Weerasekara, told parliament that all those involved in the Easter massacre—close to 260 people—had been arrested.
However, chief opposition whip, Lakshman Kiriella, said both sides of parliament and even the cardinal have doubts about the Easter Commission.
“Everyone is asking when will the perpetrators be punished in connection with these blasts,” Kiriella said.
Former chief of defense, retired navy commander, Admiral Ravindra Wijegunaratne, said he believes the attack was carried out under the full supervision of a foreign terrorist group.
“Many of those involved in the bombings were educated abroad. The bomb planted in a van in Kochchikade and the previous training in detonating a motorcycle in Kattankudy show how well this was planned. This is not something that was planned in Sri Lanka,” Wijegunaratne told the Presidential Commission on December 5.
Former president, Maithripala Sirisena, said he had no responsibility to prevent such attacks, adding that this lay with the security forces and intelligence services.
Fernando said that all those involved in the attacks should be punished regardless of rank.
“If there are rulers who have allowed the Easter attack and have fled the country, they should be given the maximum punishment,” Fernando said.
“Moreover, it should be investigated whether some politicians took bribes from Muslim extremists and allowed this to happen in silence,” she said.
