Sri Lanka: The Cardinal's Ultimatum to the President

The Sri Lankan Bishops' Conference has given the executive one month to fully investigate the bloody Islamist attacks that hit the Catholic minority hard on Easter morning on April 21, 2019.

The National Catholic Committee for Victims' Justice is furious with the inaction of the Sri Lankan authorities, to the point of sending in July 2021 an ultimatum to the Head of State, Gotabaya Rajapaksa: if the latter does not provide, within a month, “a credible response” to the letter that the episcopate sent him, Catholics will be forced to find “other means of action in order to be heard.”

“The people have the right to know the truth behind the Easter Sunday attacks, and it is the government's responsibility to reveal it to the country immediately,” insisted Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, Archbishop of Colombo and president of the episcopal conference, during a press conference organized on July 13 in the capital, in the presence of several bishops of the island.

The episcopate also demands immediate prosecution of the 42 suspects that have been arrested: “It is now 26 months since the attacks of April 21, 2019, took place. And to date, five months have passed since the presentation of the final report of the Presidential Commission appointed to investigate,” recall the prelates of the country.

“We wonder why those in power are delaying or neglecting their duties regarding the recommendations of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry, which cost several million rupees,” they insist.

In their seventeen-page letter, the Sri Lankan bishops again warn not to limit themselves to prosecuting the marginally involved culprits, but to find and convict the masterminds: otherwise, “that would be a serious crime and a denial of justice to the 269 innocent people who were slaughtered in these murderous attacks, an affront to their loved ones bereaved by their deaths, and to the several thousand people disabled because of their injuries. It would also be a serious threat to national security,” they warned.

And the tone of the prelates to be more combative: “if truth and justice cannot be assured in a satisfactory manner in this matter by the government and this issue is dealt with rather superficially, we will be forced to act through alternative means.”

An ultimatum that should make the Head of State reflect: since the April 2019 attacks, the moral and political weight of the Church in general - and of the Archbishop of Colombo in particular - has continued to grow on the island.