Cardinal meets UN Deputy HC for Human Rights

The Catholic Church has appealed to the Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to back its efforts to secure a transparent investigation into the 2019 Easter Sunday carnage.

Archbishop of Colombo Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith has made representations in this regard to United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Nada al-Nashif during a recent meeting in Geneva.

The Cardinal was accompanied by Shammil Perera, PC, to the meeting with the top UN official. A senior spokesperson for the Church told The Island that the UN intervention was sought as the Wickremesinghe-Rajapaksa government seemed indifferent to their repeated pleas for justice.Forty-five foreigners were among the 269 dead in multiple suicide blasts carried out by the National Thowheed Jamaat (NTJ) on the morning of April 21, 2019.

The official said that the government hadn’t responded positively to their request for an internationally supervised comprehensive investigation in the wake of the Channel 4 documentary that dealt with the complicity of some sections of the government in the Easter Sunday attacks.

The government’s effort to launch a fresh inquiry has suffered a setback due to the British Channel refusing to cooperate with the new inquiry team, headed by the retired Supreme Court judge (SF)