Cardinal doubtful Easter victims will find justice

ECONOMYNEXT – Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith, head of the Catholic Church, has expressed doubt that justice will be done for the victims of the 2019 Easter bombings under the present administration.

Anyone who comes to power through the blood of innocents will earn God’s wrath and will not enjoy that power for long, Cardinal Ranjjith said at a commemoration event on Thursday (21) marking 30 months since the 2019 Easter bombings.

“The rule has been brought to ridicule today,”  he said. “When friends are accused, they are acquitted. Opponents are punished even where no wrong has been done. In this context, it is clear we will not be able to get the recommendations of the [presidential commission of inquiry on the attack] implemented in the present administrative structure.”

The cardinal, who has been increasingly and scathingly critical of what he claims is the slow pace of government probe into the bombings, once again demanded to know what was happening with the investigations that were promised by the government that came to power in the months that followed the attack.

“If one is innocent, why not allow the freedom to probe it? Why not empower the officials? Why the attempt to sweep this under the carpet?” he asked. “One might do this only if they are guilty, if they realize that their nakedness will be exposed. The guilty try to pin the blame on others and hide.”

He added: “Those who shed the blood of innocents will never know peace. That must be remembered.”

The archbishop has repeatedly expressed frustration over the pace of the investigations and an alleged inability to find the masterminds of the attack, which he has implied on several occasions was the result of a “grand conspiracy” – a claim originally attributed to former Attorney General Dappula de Livera.

The Easter bombings were carried out by a small band of suspected Islamist terrorists, though opposition parties in Sri Lanka, some members of the Catholic community and others have expressed skepticism over the official narrative.

In August this year, the Cardinal also questioned claims that the terrorists had been backed by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). In July, he said he was skeptical of what he called a politically compromised law enforcement’s ability to probe the “grand conspiracy” behind the bombings.