JVP announces support for Church’s demand for full justice 

The JVP on Friday announced that they would fully support the Church’s campaign to have justice served for the Easter Sunday victims.

Addressing the media at the JVP headquarters in Pelawatte on Friday (20), JVP General Secretary Tilvin Silva said that everybody who valued justice had a right to know the truth behind the Easter Sunday terror attacks.

 “This is not an issue limited only to the Catholic people, and all of us have a right to know the truth. Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith has called for a protest on the 21st day of every month until the government comes up with the truth. We have decided to support that call,” he said.

Silva said that 28 months had elapsed since the terror attacks but the government had failed to identify the real culprits. “Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his team made use of the terror attacks to garner votes for their party promising people justice. The President, who ruled the country when the attack took place, is now a member of incumbent government. The investigations do not progress and the government, from time to time, makes lukewarm statements. Where is the justice that they promised to people?

“The former government should take the responsibility for not preventing the terror attacks. The incumbent should take the responsibility for not investigating the matter. The government for its political survival is marking the time without punishing the real culprits,” Silva said.

Operational Committee Member of the National People’s Power, Aruna Shantha Nonis, said that the Catholic Church had rejected every report furnished by the government on the Easter Sunday carnage by pointing out various lapses in them. Those reports had selectively addressed the issue and left out many important points and had limited themselves to naming some of those responsible.

“There is a serious doubt on the government’s conduct in this affair. It seems the government wants to protect some of the culprits. Who are the culprits that our intelligence units fail to identify? Or is it that our intelligence units cannot find the real culprits responsible for the Easter Sunday terror attacks,” he queried.

Prof Chrishantha Abeysena said that the government had succumbed to the pressures of deal politics and it could not deliver justice to the victims and their family members. “We have information that many policemen who are responsible for not preventing the terror attacks have been granted promotions. Where in the world such officers under a cloud get promotions,” Prof Abeysena queried.