Easter massacre: bishops ask president for international reports

The 'seismic swarm' in Sri Lankan politics continues after revelations by foreign intelligence services that differ from the official version in Colombo. The bishops ask the president for the sharing of materials since churches have been the main target of terrorists.

Colombo (AsiaNews) - The Catholic Episcopal Conference of Sri Lanka (CBCSL) renewed its request to President Ranil Wickremesinghe to share internal reports on the terrorist attacks on Easter Sunday on 21 April 2019 - in which 3 churches, 4 luxury hotels and a residential complex were attacked resulting in a total of 269 victims. 

The request was relaunched following Wickremesinghe's admission that he had received information from the American FBI, but also from the British, Indian, Pakistani and Chinese secret services.

The "seismic and political swarm" continues in Sri Lanka following the video interview that Channel 4, the British public broadcaster, broadcast a month ago on the Easter massacre in which Azad Maulana, a former militant of the Tamil Tigers (the secessionist rebels) who betrayed to join the national army that fought them.

He maintains that although the alleged authors o fthe attack, the Thowheeth Jama'ath, were arrested within a few weeks they were not responsible for the massacre which was also claimed by Islamic State.

This casts doubt on the official version that attributed all responsibility to them. Moreover: he accuses the Colombo intelligence leaders of having orchestrated the massacre with the Islamists in a meeting that he himself had organised.

Meanwhile, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, Archbishop of Colombo, continues to call for an international investigation into the attacks. Moreover, the Catholic Church in the country was the main target of the massacre and has never said it was fully convinced of the country's intelligence version.

This is not the last chapter, because President Ranil Wickremesinghe responded to the requests of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Sri Lanka during an interview with Deutsche Welle News to which CBCSL wrote: “President - read Deutsche Welle News journalist, Martin Gak, - you admitted that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the British, Indian, Chinese and Pakistani secret police provided reports of the Easter 2019 attack. This fact was first reported brought to the attention of the general public and the CBCSL only now after years. In these circumstances, we would like you to share copies of the reports with us as well."

Wickremesinghe then lashed out at the German press agency journalist, saying that "it is not necessary to launch an international investigation into the issue of the Easter Sunday attacks. The Western media think - he added - that we are the bad guys. You have come here to corner me,” he lashed out at the journalist.

During his interview, the president then said that he did not speak directly with Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, but with the country's Catholic Episcopal Conference.

In its response letter to the interview, the Catholic Bishops' Conference underlined that "Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith is a key member of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Sri Lanka, to whom a response in this regard is therefore due, as well as the sharing of material on Easter massacre is necessary for the entire Catholic Episcopal Conference which includes the bishops of the twelve dioceses of Sri Lanka and three auxiliary bishops of Colombo", concludes the CBCSL note.