The Easter massacre victims: They are part of me

Indonesian Muslim students show their solidarity to the victims of the Sri Lankan blasts in the aftermath of deadly suicide bomb blasts that killed nearly 360 people on Easter Sunday. (Pic by Juni Kriswanto/AFP)

26 April 2019

As the country has been plunged into chaos and the people are struggling to recover from the shock of Easter Sunday’s terrorist carnage, my pains are multiple. 

It pains me to watch television news on the cold-blooded massacre, to which my Christian brothers and sisters became victims. Just as every festival of different communities, Easter, too, makes me happy. Men, women and children, in their best attire, trek to the churches, with their faces exuding happiness and hearts beaming with love for God’s fellow creatures.  This fills my heart and I become one with them. 

When, on Sunday April 21, the beasts unleashed their terror on the innocents, who are a part of me, I was devastated. Their pain is my pain. Their loss is my loss.

The moment I learned about the terror attacks, my journalistic instincts told me it could be the work of the so-called jihadists.  The terrorism bore the hallmarks of church attacks that take place in countries like Egypt, Pakistan and Nigeria.

It was on 2017 Palm Sunday that terrorists blasted two Coptic Christian churches and killed some 45 people in Egypt. On 2012 Easter, Nigeria’s Boko Haram carried out a car bomb attack on a church and killed 41 people. And again it was on Easter, that a terrorist group carried out suicide blast at a public park in Pakistan’s cultural capital, Lahore, killing 75 people. In May last year in Indonesia, a radicalised family carried out a series of suicide attacks on churches.  

You may wonder why I have not identified the terrorists as Islamic terrorists and have added the adjective ‘so-called’ to describe the jihadi terrorists. This is because my Islam condemns terrorism; my Islam, like Christianity, the Dhamma and other faiths, promotes love and human fraternity and stresses on Akhlaaq, which means exemplary conduct. The Prophet Muhammad said that the Muslim is he who by his actions, words or thoughts will not harm another human being. He said, “Those who are merciful will be shown mercy by the Most Merciful. Be merciful to those on the earth and the One in the heavens will have mercy upon you.”

Muslims pray five times a day.  We end our prayers by turning our heads to the right and then left, while saying Assalamu Alaikum warahmathullah, peace and God’s mercy be upon ‘all of you’. Thus they greet the entire humanity. So, I do not know how the terrorists give a violent interpretation to the message of peace. It pains me to know that they have hijacked my religion to carry out acts of terrorism in its name and call it Jihad, whereas Jihad refers to the struggle one undergoes to reach high spiritual status.  

Don’t call them ‘Islamic’ terrorists or Jihadists. When these terms were first used by the Western media, concerned Muslims protested, pointing out the incompatibility between Islam and terrorism.  But our campaign suffered in the face of continuing terrorist acts by the hijackers of Islam. 

The Muslims have a name for them –we call them Kharijites (Khwarij). Kharij in Arabic means “seceder” or “the one who exits the community”. 

Minutes after Sunday’s blasts, we were at a shop in Wattala. My wife, who covers her head, heard a conversation between two Christian men were in the shop. The news was still sketchy. 

Pointing at my wife, one told the other, “If this is not the work of politicians, it must be the work of these people.”  He was spot on, you may say. No, we do not share anything with the terrorists. They are not ‘us’. For us, the ‘us’ is the 359 people whose lives along with their dreams were ended by inhuman brutes. For us, the ‘us’ is the 500 plus people who were wounded, the thousands who survived the horror and the millions who identify with the victims. 

We have nothing to do with these Kharijite terrorists, who discard the Quranic command to protect places of worship, especially monasteries, churches and synagogues where God’s name is invoked. 

The terrorists such as ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and National Thowheed Jamath founder Zahran Hashimi are our enemies. They come after us, for we reject their interpretations. They kill Muslims in Iraq, Syria, Pakistan and other countries, for the simple reason that a majority of us reject them.

They brand us ‘kafirs’ or non-believers – or as collaborators -- for the simple reason that we do not subscribe to their satanic interpretation of Islam.  We now realise that the Kattankudy’s Muslims were right when they held a protest in 2017, calling on the authorities to arrest “Shaitan (Satan) Zahran”, the treacherous mullah preaching a murderous creed.

It is because of the terrorists’ devilish interpretations of the scripture that there erupt, time and again, calls to ban the Quran, the Muslims’ holy book.  True, the Quran explains laws on warfare in verses revealed to the Prophet Muhammad, when the embryonic Muslim community came under attack from the city state of Makkah, the Prophet’s birthplace from where he was forced to flee. But each of these verses is accompanied by instructions that exhort peace, patience, forgiveness, justice, moderation and virtue. 

The Prophet had been grateful to the Christians, who, according to the Quran, are spiritually and in terms of friendship the closest to the Muslims. When the Muslims were being persecuted in Makkah, it was Christian Abyssinia which gave them refuge. During our five daily prayers, we recite the Muslim version of the Lord’s Prayer. We call it ‘Surah al-Fatihah’. In it, we praise God and beseech God to guide us on the straight path – the path of those on whom God has bestowed His Grace. Now when the Prophet Muhammad recited Surah al-Fatihah, who did he think of as the people on whom God had bestowed His Grace? They are those who came before him – Jesus, Moses, Jacob, Isaac, Ishmael, Abraham and others. 

It pains me to know that the terrorists had dealt a severe blow to the spiritual bond the Muslims shared with the Christians. Yes, we have differences; we Muslims do not believe in Jesus being the bigoted son of God.  We respect him as one of the mightiest prophets of God, whom we call Allah. By the way, Allah is an Arabic word with Semitic origin. It means The (al) God (Ilah) --  Eloah or Eloahim in Hebrew. Eloi in Aramic, the language Jesus spoke. 

But our differences should not be an impediment to our friendship built on many theological and spiritual concepts we share. It pains me to know that the April 21 terror attacks have damaged this special bond we have been sharing for 1,400 years. It pains me to hear that the country’s economic progress had been pushed back by the kind of terrorism we never thought would devastate our country.

It pains me to feel that the terrorists have made us hang our heads in collective shame, though they are not ‘us’.  All Muslims have become suspects.  We can’t look at the face of our Christian neighbours. We wonder whether the love and respect the Christians and others had for us are still there. But I am full of confidence that soon, we will be one with each other once again.

Law and Order, an inherent tool necessary for the progress and functioning of a civilized society

Sri Lankan Security Forces secure the area around St. Anthony’s Shrine in Colombo on April 21.

Dr. Mahim Mendis-Saturday, April 27, 2019

Senior Lecturer in Communication Studies, Open University of Sri Lanka, and Former Media Spokesman, Federation of University Teachers' Associations [FUTA]

The current national security crisis should essentially be managed within the Democratic framework of governance. Inability to protect the citizenry is not a condition that arose due to our collective faith in democratic governance, but because of an indisciplined leadership that proved to be attitudinally bankrupt in the past and in the present.

Emergency Rule in Post Independent Sri Lanka

We suffer in the hands of those who are incompatible with noble principles of democratic governance - the best known political model for a rational and civilized society as proved by the Developed First World countries throughout the world.

The system has proved even in the recent past that a majority of elected representatives have no respect for the rule of law as demonstrated by their own conduct. Neither are their leaders in a position to create in their own members of parliament a sober and a professional imagination that fits a civilized nation.

It is a shame that their failure to uphold democratic principles, compel them to take refuge in autocratic practices with militarization of society. If the armed forces become more important than the country’s Police Department, that alone proves that Sri Lankan politicians have made democracy a mockery with a severe cost to freedom and human development.

A strong political leadership

Many have forgotten that the previous regime led by the Rajapksas was defeated just five years after the war ended due to their culture of impunity, as proved in Rathupaswala, Katunayake, and through Welikada Prison murders that used the military to quell civil society actions, trade unionism, and law and order. If the use of the armed forces is what in our opinion creates a strong political leadership, we should label ourselves as a ‘Nation of simpletons’, with the condition further aggravated with a severe memory loss on realities that we were severely burdened with just four years ago.

It looks like that the urge for strong government has made our countrymen forget the fate that befell celebrated Newspaper Editor Lasantha Wickrematunge, political Cartoonist and Alternative Journalist Ekneligoda, and even an innocent sportsman like the former Thomian Ruggerite Wasim Thajudeen. The greatest army commander in the world, as described by Rajapaksas themselves ended up in the Welikada Prison, simply because he was a formidable challenge to the very President who appointed him.

Confront Global Terrorism

The governments over the years have been indifferent to the rights of minority groups at a general level and in recent times to the Christians when they engaged in peaceful worship. The last statement on this issue was released on the very day Sri Lankans became victims of global terrorism inspired by religious and political fundamentalism of a minority group among the world Muslim community.
Accordingly, the statement of the National Christian Council issued on April 21, 019 concerning the recent attack at the Prayer Centre of the Methodist Church in Anuradhapura emphasizes that “Law and Order is an inherent tool necessary for the progress and functioning of a civilized society”. It also states that they mourn the in-action, the unprofessional attitude and lackluster approach of the ‘Police’ (the law enforcement arm) in the discharge of its responsibilities for which it exists, as a result of which chaos reigned. The authorities should take note that they failed to counter sporadic attacks by local fundamentalists in the non-secular Republic of Sri Lanka, before they proved to be complacent towards the local cell of the ISIS.

Universally Tried and Tested Democratic Model

If the regime that reigned supreme until January 2015 in fact provided a strong political leadership, they would not have depended on astrological guidance on when to hold elections. By the time the election was held almost two years in advance, due to feelings of insecurity on the part of Rajapaksas, inspite of achievements like ending the war under the strategic military leadership of courageous men like Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka, the result was electoral defeat.

The need of the hour is to urgently depart from the regressive and backward culture of governance for which the present-day politicians as well as the political appointees in the country’s bureaucracy should take full responsibility. We condemn their bureaupathic indifference towards the needs of the people, being pathological. The responses of the former Defence Secretary Fernando, that they never anticipated a large-scale attack, and that the government would not provide security to Star Class Hotels even in the future is a clear case in point.

The urgent need is to restore normalcy through a disciplined democratic leadership with highest respect for professionalism in law enforcement. The checks and balances for this purpose should never be inspired by forms of authoritarianism and militarization, as that becomes a counter revolution against the mandate the present political regime received from the people on January 9, 2015.

Come, let us build!

 AND ALSO BREAK DOWN: While terrorism breaks down to destroy, in the wake of Easter Sunday’s carnage in Sri Lanka – it seems that our island-nation must analyse (‘intelligence’ fiascos), breakdown (establishment barriers and political buffoonery) and construct (causes, curatives, cohesive strategies for reintegration) in order to live… And move forward – beyond mere political survival into sheer purposeful thriving shorn of extremism as a peaceful nation once again – Pix by Chamila Karunarathne

 Friday, 26 April 2019 


It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. Best because Sri Lanka was united in what it did well: being at peace, on an extended sabbatical, pursuing the absence of conflict – even mindlessly – and enjoying the fruit of island life. Worst because swiftly, sharply, suddenly, a mindful – as far as anyone brainwashed can be mindful – force, inimical to both happiness and holiness, proved to us all that in the midst of such a life we are in death.

As islanders from all walks of life and pilgrimages of faith now struggle to piece their lives together and live in peace together, several dominant themes (at least to my mind) emerge:

Controlled explosions

As forensic evidence is sifted, it becomes increasingly clear that the diabolical plot was a long time in the making. And despite the asinine assertions of state ministers, there is little to link the Easter Sunday attacks in Sri Lanka with the carnage in Christchurch more than a month ago. That is the opinion evidently shared by New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, whose salutary leadership in the aftermath of her nation’s tragedy resulted in a great deal of good coming out of the grief.

A ‘controlled explosion’ (to borrow a phrase from bomb-disposal terminology) that could work well for Sri Lanka came from Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka in the House two days ago. In an obviously emotional yet tactically focused speech, the former Army Commander spoke truth to power in a way that had both foes and friends cringing, and running for cover. If the UNP, for one, is able to swallow its wounded pride and field this long-neglected soldier in forthcoming electoral battles, it may eventuate that while politicians may have forgotten the services of an erstwhile patriot – the people at large have not.

Be that as it may, the retired soldier turned would-be statesman’s calibre is a consummation devoutly to be wished among national leaders today. 

Crucifying expositions

In a tattoo of uncontrolled explosions, our so-called national leadership has satisfied its bloodlust by firing embarrassing volley after volley of blaming shots across the well of a House as usual torn in two. The President, away from the scene of a home tragedy when it happened, lingered longer than it was conscionable and returned too late to deliver little by way of comfort, stimulation or encouragement. That the Prime Minister and his Cabinet were capable of no better comes as no surprise these days, as the principal party in Government continues its slide from the supercilious into the ridiculous. A call for the Defence Secretary and the IGP to resign could well be justified politically, for heads have to roll to satisfy public ire and political ambition alike.

Maybe if the man in the street was more willing to interpret what transpired as less of a lapse of intelligence than a hernia in common sense, we would not have to deal with women suicide bombers and dead children in shallow graves again. However smart or savvy our political mandarins may be after the event, calling for a spate of resignations when it is clear that the rot starts at the top makes one feel – a week after Good Friday – that three more crucifixions of the highest order would be welcome. 

Calming exhortations

Much as it may hurt some to bring religion into the rich mix, credit for pouring balm on grievous wounds must go to Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith. In the later aftermath of the deadly attacks which left large numbers of his flock dead and church property damaged, the prelate – notwithstanding early shots fired in the heat of the moment – spoke the peace of Christ into a combustible situation.

And if even notoriously politically-minded clerics are sensitive to the need to calm not only the wounded body of Christ but hurting people from the length and breadth of our land with promise once, more sympathy and mutual understanding among diverse communities may plant some much needed seeds of reconciliation.

Be that too as it may, there is much more to be done starting from the grassroots level up to cultivate a tree in which the crippled birds of a once-blessed isle can take shelter and refuge from what seems like a coming storm long in the making.

Civilian explosives

I wrote yesterday and retweeted several times in the past few days about the remarkable restraint that a majority of islanders showed to their fellow citizens in the wake of the incendiary attacks. But today, I’m saddened to see less salutary accounts popping up through the cracks in our national psyche’s chinks.  Sorry to read in New York Times World’s Twitter feed inter alia “In Negombo … gangs of Christian men moved from house to house, smashing windows, breaking doors, dragging people into the streets, punching them in the face and threatening to kill them.” True? False? Rumours? The jury is out, and personal and propaganda wars on Twitter – the only social medium available to armchair warriors no less fierce than radicalised anarchists – rage…

However hard it is to hear these horror stories, they must be told – Not to alarm or aggravate. But alert and make aware. And in order that human emotion not add fuel to the flames of institutional failure. However, for a plethora of such explosive reports there is a panoply of rewarding encouragements. Not least of which for me personally was an unsolicited visit by my Muslim neighbours a day after dark Easter. Whether in sympathy, solidarity or a show of reciprocation for support extended when the Kandy District was set alight by inflamed arsonists, I neither know nor care to ask.

Therefore in the midst of the pain, grief, carnage, and in true island spirit, it seems my neighbours are keen to build. Negombo may be an aberration for a community notoriously temperamental. But in the main, the ‘cardinal’ principle (take it as you like it) of “forgive them, for they do not truly understand what they are doing” holds true in the land today. And if the cold clear darkness after the political purges has any light in it at all, it is that for a majority of Sri Lankans, this peace without present justice – warts and all – is well worth preserving.

I pray that neither craven self-serving politics nor the volatile passions of secularised religion will compromise a people who are crying out “Come, let us build!”

There is a fifth horseman of our apocalypse (Greek, ‘revelation’). An uncovering that starts by asking, “Who benefits?” (Cui bono, in Latin…)

Cui bono examination

I hesitate to suggest that anyone benefits in any sense from the senseless deaths Sri Lankans as a whole suffered with the toll still rising and with personal costs being inestimable. But it seems that someone, somewhere, had a purpose in creating this chaos. Shall we pussyfoot around every sensitive islander’s sneaking suspicion that a sometime State-empowered terrorist has somehow a hand in it?

However hard that may be to stomach, the bitter pill is that politicos of all stripes are seeking to score cheap points and striving to get ahead of their fellows in a terrible rat race to first place. Therefore, whoever the fanatic mastermind/s may be behind the egregious violence, self-serving politicians of all parties can and must be held accountable for their lapses and lack of accountability up to now.

We could start by signing as many citizen petitions as possible to bring an impeachment motion to bear on our Head of State: who is clearly unfit to be a decent man leave alone Defence Minister. The State Defence Minister and his political senior the Prime Minister stand condemned out of their own mouths for a lack of significant enough political will to insinuate themselves into the crucial National Security Council or agitate sufficiently so that the Governmental apparatus was alerted in time to their critical omission from that vital council.

That other defence mandarins like secretaries, inspectors general or intelligence chiefs are axed or asked to resign is neither here nor there to me. There is such a thing as natural justice, true. But Cabinet responsibility is a custom honoured more in the breach than the observance – and it would surprise everyone if ministers, MPs or major military officials said so much more than a token ‘mea culpa’! Shall we not do better to take radical steps to investigate the governors implicated in promoting and protecting the culprits and suspects?

The faith – or lack of it – of a citizen is a private matter between him or her and their deity or demon. There are times, though, when the body politic and its elected or appointed executives does well – and does right – to ask the man to drop his mask and face his public interrogators; preferably sans political shield and buckler. This is such a time; and there are at least two provincial governors who need to give account of their past and present doings. 

(Journalist | Editor-at-large of LMD | Writer #SpeakingTruthToPower)

THE BEST RESPONSE TO EXTREMISM AND EXTREMIST VIOLENCE IS TO WORK TOWARDS A JUST SOCIAL ORDER. – HRC, SRI LANKA

26/04/2019

(26.04.2019/ Colombo/HRCSL) The terrifying and violent acts perpetrated on 21st April, Easter Sunday, have left all of us in deep shock and sorrow. The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka vehemently condemns these cruel acts which snuffed out a large number of lives.

We offer our deepest condolences to the bereaved families. We also salute the police officers who lost their lives while conducting investigations and offer members of their families our heartfelt sympathies.

At a moment like this, when our hearts are bleeding and we are fearful and uncertain about our future, we thought of addressing you for a specific purpose. That is to emphasize the importance of recognizing our duty as citizens`to build our common future with responsibility and a positive vision.
We all know that while we are entitled to human rights, we also are subjected to corresponding duties. It is also an established truth that we can effectively enjoy our human rights only in a society where its members fulfill their duties.

When we assess the challenges faced by us today, the main challenges are to ensure that normalcy is restored to the everyday life of citizens and that the trauma and pain we suffer are not converted into hatred and retaliatory intentions resulting in counter violence. We also do know that occasions such as this can be exploited by anti-social elements for narrow political,economic or other gains to cause religious strife. We should come forward to face such challenges with a great deal of responsibility. In particular, we must refrain from engaging in hate speech and inciting violence when expressing our views through any medium, including social media.

Our collective future rests in our hands, the hands of citizens. We cannot build a hopeful future through hatred and violence. It is us, the citizens, who should give leadership to build a society in which we can all live in human dignity as equals.

The best response to extremism and extremist violence is to work towards a just social order. We have learnt from history that one form of extremism breeds other forms of extremism. It is the average citizen who suffers from such cycles of hatred. It is our future that is left bleak. Therefore, let us resolve to fulfill our duties for our own sake and for the sake of our children. Let us build a society where all of us can live in dignity.

Let us turn that resolve into our strength.
Chairperson

Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka

Easter Sunday Attack, No Heads Rolled  

By M.M. Janapriya –APRIL 27, 2019

Dr. M.M. Janapriya

Last Sunday devotees assembled as usual at the churches but in a grander scale to observe the Easter Sunday. Some sat down with friends and family for breakfast at three of the city’s top most hotels to celebrate Easter. Alas! in a matter of milliseconds 259 innocent lives were blasted and over 600 were injured by some mentally deranged or misguided youth carrying powerful bombs in their back packs. This tragedy took place despite the authorities getting to know well in advance that an attack on sites of worship of Christian faith and some 5 star hotels was imminent. Even so why wasn’t it thwarted?

Response of the Cardinal

In the face of there being  clear and  unforgivable security lapses which converted a preventable attack in to an inevitable one, the Arch bishop was magnanimous enough to make every effort to dispel any fears the country might have developed on the ordinary Muslim community and remained consciously above the level of playing the usual blame game. This prevented a possible backlash and more bloodshed for certain so the Arch Bishop’s approach was exemplary and indeed deserves to be lauded. 

Chronology 

On their own admission the government knew for quite some time that there have been extremists of Islamic faith in our midst. On the 4th April 2019 or thereabouts foreign intelligence agencies have officially alerted the local counterparts of the imminent danger giving a good amount of detail in the process. Apparently Indian intelligence have been briefing their Sri Lankan  counterparts of this attack for about 4 months at unofficial level and in the last month this briefing has happened weekly till the official intimation took place on the 4th April. According to foreign journalists, countries rarely get this kind of detailed information. In the above mentioned background one would have expected the Sri Lankan authorities to have moved very quickly and to have mobilized all their intelligence, police and military muscle in order to draw up a fool proof plan to thwart this attack. Instead, what followed was a comedy of errors.  The IGP apparently wrote letters (I am not sure of the date of the letter) to 5 DIGG about the matter but the action 4 of them seems to have taken is unclear. The one in charge of VIP security had intimated in writing to his colleagues in charge of different VIPs asking them to tighten the security of the latter by letter dated 9th April 2019. This reminds me of how the health department functioned the time I started working as a junior doctor 48 years ago. Write letters and wait for things to happen. The way the Defense Secretary responded to foreign journalists trying to absolve himself from blame was shameful to say the least. One of the young Ministers owes his life to his dad who was in a hospital ICU. The senior advised him not to go to the church on the fateful day as there had been a threat of an attack on churches. Unfortunately even this minister failed to pass this information to the public. If the strength of the information was such that it prevented him attending the Easter Sunday mass, it was indeed authentic enough for him to have left no stone unturned to inform the public of the impending disaster.   

The president and the Prime Minister were quick to place before the suspecting nation, the reason why they should not be responsible for letting the attack go through by audacious inaction. The time now is 11.30 pm on the 26th April 2019 and just about 10 minutes ago I watched the President Mr. Sirisena being quizzed by journalists at a press conference. A little earlier he addressed the nation in which speech he exclaimed many times “I am not trying to shirk responsibility for not being able to prevent this attack. The entire government should stand responsible”. There is a saying, the one who excuses accuses himself, so let the nation decide whether the head of the state who was holidaying in Singapore (his own revelation on state TV of 26th April 2019) when the country was getting blasted like falling dominos was indeed a Nero playing the viola when Rome was on fire. It looks to me that the 359 people who paid the ultimate price had committed as a group, an unforgivable sin (like facilitating mass killers by suboptimal action, inexplicable inaction or indeed as a result of professional lethargy) in one of their previous births, for they went on their exit journey despite there being enough that could have been done to foil the attacks that killed them. 

Read More

Exclusive: Sri Lanka was warned of threat hours before suicide attacks - sources

A woman reacts during a mass burial of victims, two days after a string of suicide bomb attacks on churches and luxury hotels across the island on Easter Sunday, in Colombo, Sri Lanka April 23, 2019. REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte

APRIL 23, 2019

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lankan intelligence officials were tipped off about an imminent attack by Islamist militants hours before a series of suicide bombings killed more than 300 people on Easter Sunday, three sources with direct knowledge of the matter said.

Three churches and four hotels were hit by suicide bombers on Sunday morning, killing 321 people and wounding 500, sending shockwaves through an island state that has been relatively peaceful since a civil war ended a decade ago.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks on Tuesday, without providing evidence of its involvement.

Indian intelligence officers contacted their Sri Lankan counterparts two hours before the first attack to warn of a specific threat on churches, one Sri Lankan defense source and an Indian government source said.

Another Sri Lankan defense source said a warning came “hours before” the first strike.

One of the Sri Lankan sources said a warning was also sent by the Indians on Saturday night. The Indian government source said similar messages had been given to Sri Lankan intelligence agents on April 4 and April 20.

Sri Lanka’s presidency and the Indian foreign ministry both did not respond to requests for comment.
Sri Lanka’s failure to effectively respond to a looming Islamist threat will fuel fears that a rift between Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and President Maithripala Sirisena is undermining national security.

The president fired Wickremesinghe last October over political differences, only to reinstate him weeks later under pressure from the Supreme Court.

Opposing factions aligned to Wickremesinghe and Sirisenahave often refuse to communicate with each other and blame any setbacks on their opponents, government sources say.

Sri Lankan police had been warned weeks ago about a possible attacks by a little-known domestic Islamist group, according to an Indian intelligence report given to Sri Lankan state intelligence services, and seen by Reuters.

Sirisena, announcing plans on Tuesday to change the heads of the defense forces, said his office never received the Indian report.

Junior Defense Minister Ruwan Wijewardene, an ally of Wickremesinghe, told Reuters that he was also not privy to the Indian intelligence findings.

Reporting by Shihar Aneez, Ranga Sirilal, Joe Brock and Sanjeev Miglani; Writing by Joe Brock; Editing by Alex Richardson

A national tragedy: After the bombs stopped

“Yet across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us.”   

— H. G. Wells, “The War of the Worlds”

“What’s done is done.” 

— John Amaratunga, Press Conference on April the 21st   

27 April 2019

When the dust and the rubble settle, and when all the bombs are defused, we will learn more about those who were involved. Until then, we can never know for sure. What we can do now is speculate: make sense of what happened, indict who were responsible for the inactions that led to it, and try to find a way out for us all. The Easter bombings have gone on record as some of the worst since 9/11. The tears, the fatigue, and the anger all point out that we are still trying to come to terms with them.   

What DID we learn? That terrorism in Sri Lanka is no longer home-grown, but that a global terrorist phenomenon has become domesticated. Domesticated, not last week, but long before any of us could reach a consensus. The truth is that warnings were sounded. The truth is that those who sounded those warnings were (justifiably) taken as extremists whose Cassandra ravings didn’t have to be listened to. The truth is that most of us looked at the messenger and not the message. And the truth is that an awful lot of us now seem to prefer his ravings to the murmurs of this government.   

But it wasn’t just these divisive figures who went on tolling the bells. There were others who broadcast the same message they had been broadcasting, without the inflammatory rhetoric. I can point out here Hafeel Farisz’s article on foreign inspired Islamism in 2016 and Ranga Jayasuriya’s article on the growth of the ISIS in the country in 2015, and I can point out some of the comments which greeted the findings of their reports. When Hafeel tried to counter in his writings the spread of Wahabbism, for instance, one writer retorted, “There is no consensus on what the term ‘radicalisation’ means.” Now, of course, we can get a consensus. But at what cost? As of now, more than 340 lives.   

The significance of the Easter attacks cannot be undermined. They targeted the Christian, specifically Catholic, population, which belongs concurrently to an ethnic majority and minority (Sinhala and Tamil) on the one hand, and is a religious minority on the other. The terrorists followed, and did their deed in the name of, a faith that has never, as far as history is concerned, majorly clashed with Christianity on our soil.   

As such, the attacks cannot be assessed on the basis of the parameters by which previous attacks on ethnic minorities in the country have been assessed; the terrorists have focused entirely on the international dimension, the civilisational clash we are seeing in the West and West Asia (i.e. the Middle East), over the local Buddhist-Muslim clash. One can argue they unleashed their carnage in Sri Lanka because of prior attacks on Muslims by Buddhists, but at the same time one can argue ISIS/DAESH selected this country because of its weakened security apparatus. In any case, the localisation of a centuries-long East-versus-West conflict cannot be denied.   

Which is why it comes to no surprise that certain observers are confused and bewildered. Eric Solheim, for instance, tweets that Muslims and Christians are “small minorities” in the country – the implication being what, exactly? “They have been victims of violence in Sri Lanka,” he adds, which is true, except that it is rather irrelevant to the realities and dynamics of the context to which he is referring.   

The Christians who were slaughtered that day were not victims of violence unleashed against local minorities by ethnic chauvinists. Mr. Solheim, given his involvement with the ceasefire process between the government and the LTTE, should know that only too well. But that is the narrative I am getting from many foreign commentators, the case of the BBC inviting Dr Thusiyan Nandakumar, only to get the usual account of Sinhala Buddhists murdering Tamils and Muslims, being the most prominent.   

And it’s not just foreign observers. The local ones seem to be as confused, if not more so. “[E]ven if the Islamic militants feel that Sri Lanka has done badly by the Muslims,” Jehan Perera informs Padma Rao Sundarji, whose analysis of the carnage, published in the Hindustan Times, is the best from a foreign correspondent so far, “there would be hardly a point in attacking Christians who are also in a minority and often subject to anti-Christian actions at a local level.” You can sense the bewilderment there: why should Christians, attacked by Sinhala Buddhists all the time, be attacked by Muslims?   

Given the confusion – which has led commentators to view even a domesticated variant of a global conflict in terms of the majority/minority dichotomy in Sri Lanka – it comes to no surprise that most of those among the civil society activists who stood up strongly against the Dharga Town and Digana attacks, as well as the constitutional coup of last October, are now conspicuous by their silence. To be sure, they have spoken up, and have posted what needs to be posted on social media, but the level of outrage expressed, at the tragic culmination of a process of radicalisation which was ongoing for some time, lacks the immediacy and tenor one got from them with respect to attacks by Sinhala Buddhists against other ethnic, religious, and social groups.   

And when activists and commentators were bewildered this way, it followed that MPs would conduct themselves in a ridiculously slipshod manner at odds with their responses to previous episodes of ethnic and religious violence. Among the MPs who were joking around and smirking like the infantilised adults they have always been, for instance, was Lakshman Kiriella, who in the aftermath of the Kandy attacks stated that all Buddhists should apologise to the Muslims.   

The truth is that we were unprepared for a tragedy we should have been prepared for. The truth is that violence against ethnicities and measures against terrorism were rationalised and taken in terms of the split between Buddhists and non-Buddhists. In a country that’s at the centre of major geopolitical interests – Western and Asian – this was arguably the most fallacious attitude we could ever project.   

And when Islamist extremists were pointed out, when Muslims and non-Muslims alike were demonstrating against the rise of Wahhabism, the protests were shot down. If you’re against what you think to be extremist manifestations of Islam, the stereotype ran, you are against the Muslims of the country. This was seen even in the way the arrest of Abdul Razik, Secretary of the Sri Lanka Thawheed Jamath (from which the National Thawheed Jamath, believed to be responsible for the attacks, split), in 2016 was reported. Here, for instance, is how one journalist saw it:   

“Amid fears of renewed religious tensions and ethnically charged hate-speech gaining ground, police yesterday arrested Secretary of Sri Lanka Thawheed Jamath R. Abdul Razik on charges of insulting religion and ‘angering a religious devotee’ during a protest against proposed reform to the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act (MMDA) last week. The arrest comes in the wake of threats by notorious Bodu Bala Sena Chief Galagodaththe Gnanasara Thero, who promised to attack the majority Muslim suburb of Maligawatte if the IGP failed to take the Secretary of the SLTJ into custody.”(Daily FT, November 17 2016)   

In other words, Razik was arrested because of Gnanasara Thera’s threats, and he needn’t have been taken into custody it if weren’t for them!   

The tragedy we succumbed to at the time was that we conflated the two – condemnation of Islamic extremism was seen as anti-Muslim rhetoric spewed by the likes of the Thera – and continued to project this narrative right down to the early hours of the Easter attacks. (I should know, since even I believed the bombings were carried out by those connected with the Kandy attacks.) This conflation was what the security personnel were forced to swallow for years, thereby framing terrorism as an exclusively domestic phenomenon. It hence comes to no surprise that even when Vice President of the Muslim Council, Hilmy Ahamed, warned intelligence officials about the NTJ, he was ignored.   

So who are we to blame? First and foremost, the politicians. 

Secondly, the activists who neglected to stand firmly with those who were criticising the rise of radicalism. And thirdly, many of those (not all) who wrote to the papers, gave voice-cuts, and perpetuated the myth that those who criticised the practices of extremist minority groups were caving into Sinhala Buddhist chauvinism. 

As of now, more than 340 are dead. And we have these people to thank for what, in part at least, led to it.   

Easter Sunday Attacks: A personal reflection

DINESHA SAMARARATNE-04/26/2019

After three successive days of numbness, fear, anxiety, trauma, devastating sadness and anger I pen these thoughts. I do not have any ‘rational’ explanation for the horror that we are experiencing. I do however feel compelled to explain how I feel. In that effort, I hope I can contribute to the several conversations that are unfolding in response to the so called ‘Easter Sunday attacks’ in Sri Lanka.

As I moved from denial to acceptance of the carnage that took place, I began to sense that we were all caught up once again in that terrible cycle. We hear some terrible news and begin to contact our loved ones. In the numbness and shock that follows we get drawn to the news, to social media and spend the day and much of the night going through the vicious cycle. Part of you reminds you that this is familiar, that this is similar to what you did when the constitutional crisis happened, that this is what you did when the attacks took place in Digana, that this is what you did when the tsunami hit, and you can keep going back in time.

At some level you also realise that this is similar to what your mother or your father or neighbour did in the previous generation and in the one before. You look at your children partly wondering what you should tell them and how, but also partly wondering what they will do, when their turn comes. You feel survivor’s guilt, in the full knowledge that there is no rational explanation for why you or your family members were spared. You realise that there is no rational explanation as to why you get to put your child to sleep while another mother has to identify the dead body of the child she has birthed. Hearing bits and pieces of the news about the attacks, my son asks me, ‘Amma, but why would someone do that?’ I mumble a response. I feel numb realising that my heritage of horror will soon be his to bear too.

Almost as if this unfolding horror is not enough, a political horror has begun to unfold. We are told by those who hold governmental power that there was information on the possibility of such attacks. I remember being shown that letter which was released to social media as soon as the attacks occurred. I dismissed it immediately assuming that someone was circulating ‘fake news’ in bad faith. But as the events unfolded we are told that it was in fact the truth. How are we supposed to process that? How are we expected to come to terms with the knowledge that our government had enough information to act on, but had not? How can we accept the attitude with which these statements were made?

But then, you begin to remember; you remember the stories that your mother or another family member has told you, about the 83 riots. About how the government at the time did not respond for three days. About the insurrection and the response of the government to the insurrection and about how there was minimal accountability for that violence and for the deaths. You remember the stories that you heard about the war – so many stories about the war, and how we are still struggling to have some level of accountability for it. You sit back and face the bitter truth all over again – this has been our political reality, our bitter political reality across generations.

A few weeks ago, we watched the Prime Minister of New Zealand responding with empathy and a deep sense of responsibility to the attacks in Christchurch. Despite the horror and tragedy that unfolded there, I watched the way she gave leadership to the process of grieving and how she mobilised her government to take preventative measures. In that dark hour, in her leadership, I found hope.

In Sri Lanka, I find hope in the way in which many of our people have responded. Whether in donating blood, in reaching out to one religious community or another in expressing solidarity, whether in empathising with the immediate victims, people are doing what they can. I know that doctors, hospital staff, police officers, members of the armed forces, ambulance drivers serve the nation at these moments of tragedy in utterly selfless ways. You remember the way in which many Sri Lankans responded to the tsunami, how they respond when floods hit. You recall the many stories of how neighbours protected their Tamil friends during the 83 riots. And you know in your heart that if you look in the right places, you will find hope. But at the same time, it is no secret that we have, among us, those who hold extreme views. Some of them are voicing their opinions now, in anger and in confusion. Some others are acting on these opinions. All of us – hurting, confused Sri Lankans – are in need of leadership. We need national leadership that will help us to do more for our society as we go through this tragedy. If we are harbouring extremist views, we need a national leadership that will help us to overcome those views. But we are faced with the bitter reality that we do not have that kind of leadership.

Many Sri Lankans are trying their best at this time to bring communities together and prevent further violence or harm. You see individuals doing this on social media, you see organizations publishing statements, you see inter-religious meetings etc. But the information that is now coming in points to a gruesome reality. The efforts required to combat the security threat that we are faced with is beyond our individual or collective efforts. It requires, among other things, a competent government that is committed to upholding democratic values. In many ways, this threat seems to me like the financial crisis of 2008, and the impact of climate change that we have experienced in Sri Lanka. Metaphorically, it reminds me of the deaths caused by the Meethotamulla garbage dump. ‘Man-made’ disasters that impact at an unprecedented scale. These disasters assume new levels of complexity, posing new questions to us and compelling us to search for new answers. These disasters are at least in part due to social, economic, cultural, religious issues that have either been ignored or actively compounded. They come back as demons to destroy our lives in random and horrific ways. These ‘events’ result in death, destruction that could have been prevented or at the very least minimised. According to the information that is coming in, this time around in Sri Lanka, it has a global dimension to it.

Looking specifically at religious ‘extremism’ in Sri Lanka, one cannot ignore our fractured political past and how it shapes our present realities. One cannot ignore how the Constitution and the law both in substance in and practice has often been part of the problem. Today the compounded effect of these local, national, regional, global realities is leaving its marks in our land. We see it and we feel it in the trauma of a father grieving the loss of his entire family, in the mother burying her daughter, in a community that watches backhoes pouring earth over rows of coffins in a mass grave and in our collective sense of despair.

There are many dangers to deal with in facing our future. How do we grieve and come to terms with what we are experiencing? What do we do with our political elite? How do we address the security threat? How do we sustain our hope? So many questions, and so many anxieties. History tell us that horrific experiences and tragedies are also the birthing grounds of new visions for humanity and training in resilience for many. Sri Lanka is in desperate need of both.

Editor’s Note: Also read ‘Easter Sunday Attacks: Key Updates‘ and ‘White Flags’

EXPLAINING Sri Lanka’s NEW EMERGENCY REGULATIONS

Gehan Gunatilleke-Saturday, April 27, 2019

Sri Lanka’s president issued a new set of Emergency Regulations on April 22, 2019. This note explains the contents of Emergency Regulation 15, which concerns the ‘control of publications’, and certain other regulations relevant to publication.

There are four features in Regulation 15 worth discussing. Before explaining these features, we should note that a ‘competent authority’ is defined in Emergency Regulation 2 as ‘any person appointed by name, or by office, by the President to be a competent authority’. Regulation 15 does not provide any specific definition for a ‘competent authority’, so we can presume this general definition applies to Regulation 15.

Restriction on publication

First, a competent authority (CA) is given the power to restrict the publication (in Sri Lanka) or transmission (to a place outside Sri Lanka) of something that might be prejudicial to national security, or certain other similar aims. Other aims include public order and the maintenance of essential services. The decision to issue directions can be based on the opinion of the CA. The general focus of this Regulation is on the ‘publication’ of something. However, the term ‘transmission’ can include sharing information to a place outside Sri Lanka even privately. Any person who contravenes a direction of a CA is guilty of an offence.
Prior censorship

Second, a CA can require material, including news reports, editorials, articles, and cartoons, to be submitted to the CA before publication. Regulation 15 therefore appears to enable prior censorship. A plain reading of this provision suggests that the CA’s powers are broad enough to cover any publication that, in the CA’s opinion, might be prejudicial to national security or certain other similar aims.

Newspapers and printing presses

Third, if an offence relates to publishing a newspaper, the president can prohibit the person (convicted of the offence) from publishing a newspaper in Sri Lanka. Alternatively, if a person contravenes a direction of a CA, and the contravention relates to publishing a newspaper, or if the CA is of the opinion that something calculated to be prejudicial to national security (or other such aims) is likely to be published in a newspaper, the CA may (by issuing an order) prohibit the printing, publishing and distribution of that newspaper. In the case of a contravention, the CA is required to first give a warning to the person. However, no warning appears to be necessary when the CA is of the opinion that something calculated to be prejudicial to national security (or other such aims) is likely to be published in a newspaper.

Regulation 15 defines ‘newspaper’ to include any form of publication. This definition can potentially include online publications.

The CA may also prohibit the use of the relevant printing press for any purpose, and may authorise the seizure of the printing press or the premises where it is located. Such powers apply not only to a newspaper specifically named by the CA in an order, but also to any other newspaper (under any other name) that publishes the same content of the newspaper specifically named by the CA. The powers of seizing a printing press extends to situations where the CA is of the opinion that the printing press is likely to be used to produce a document calculated to prejudice national security (or other such aims), even if such document is not meant for publication.

Advisory Committees

Fourth, the president must appoint one or more ‘Advisory Committees’ that are authorised to hear objections from a person dissatisfied with an order of a CA with respect to a newspaper publication or printing press. All members of such committees, including the chairperson, are appointed by the president. The CA is duty bound to inform the proprietor of the relevant newspaper or the owner of the relevant printing press that he (or she) can make representations to the president, and make objections to an Advisory Committee. The Advisory Committee must submit a report to the president, who may revoke or vary the order.

Other offences

Apart from Regulation 15, Regulations 32 and 33 contain prohibitions that relate to speech and publication. Regulation 32 prohibits dissemination of any ‘rumour’ or ‘false statement’ likely to cause ‘public alarm’ or ‘public disorder’. Regulation 33 prohibits printing or publishing any document that gives information on or comments on the activities of any banned organisation, or any matter pertaining to investigations of the government into a ‘terrorism movement’, or any matter pertaining to the security of Sri Lanka. For example, publishing a leaked intelligence document would be prohibited under this Regulation.

Consequences

When a newspaper contravenes any provision of Regulation 15, the proprietor, manager, editor and publisher of the newspaper are all separately guilty of an offence.

The consequences of committing an offence under Regulations 15, 32 and 33 are contained in Regulation 49. The Regulation provides that a person guilty of an offence can be punished with rigorous imprisonment for a term not less than three months and not exceeding five years, and to a fine of not less than five hundred rupees and not exceeding five thousand rupees.

(The author is an Attorney-at-Law and research director at Verité Research. He thanks Luwie Ganeshathasan, Malsirini de Silva and Rehana Mohammed for their generous time in reviewing this note.)

The State Of Denial: Collective Myopia Of The Muslim Community Of Sri Lanka 

By Sean Sathkorale –APRIL 27, 2019

The terrible events of 04/21 are now a part of our national psyche. We now know that a team of radicalized Muslim youth led by a maverick Salafist Jihadist preacher in the East has committed these dastardly crimes against humanity. It goes without saying that a lion’s share of the blame of Easter attacks rests squarely on the shoulders of the incumbent government, particularly on its pathetically inefficient and apathetic leaders, namely the President and the Prime Minister. It is these people, with their eye on the Muslim block vote, and in the name of political expediency, ignored the dire warnings issued of the growing Salafist threat, living in a cuckoo land, that allowed this cancer to pester in to its eventual eruption in a horrifying manner. These two utterly inefficient leaders have blood of the innocents in their hands and they cannot shirk from the responsibility by passing the buck like clowns in a circus. The current Opposition Leader too must bear some responsibility. It was during his regime that we saw the birth pangs of this menace. While his regime took some actions to combat, it used wrong tools towards the end. Like propping up the nationalist Bodu Bala Sena, which may or may not be a false flag operation by the certain powerful Yahapalana political entities in order deny the then President the Muslim vote. While acknowledging the overall culpability of these parties, we should not lose sight of another stakeholder, namely the Muslim Community of Sri Lanka. 

The Muslim community of Sri Lanka goes back at least 800 years. They prospered under Sinhalese kings and were their allies when they confronted Portuguese invaders and were in turn helped by the generosity of the King to escape the wrath of the vengeful Portuguese and were settled in Kandyan Provinces in the East. Even today we find Muslims in Kandy with traditional Sinhalese surnames that denote the affinity they enjoyed under native rulers. As another writer pointed out recently, Muslims are true “Bhoomiputhras”, part of the rich cultural heritage of this exalted island. However, the responses by the Muslim community regarding the Easter Tragedy, is hardly encouraging. There seem to be a worrying thread running through all these utterances. That is the reluctance to confront the menace Islamic fundamentalism on their midst. A child of the expansion of Wahabism under Saudi patronage with petrodollars, it first ensnared East during late 1980s and then spread like wildfire to rest of the country. It suppressed moderate voices and today is a dominant strand among the Muslims. We have been seeing its effect on the Muslim community for decades. Their increased isolation, their attempts at expansion into suburbs, changes in their dress and manner all emblazoned the increasing Arabization of this native community. It is also well-known influx of narcotics into the country is mostly at the behest of the Muslim underworld and its close links with the Islamic fundamentalists is another worrying development. 

However, apart from offering lame excuses like “Terrorism has no religion” (were they thinking of irreligious terrorists?) the Muslim community is yet to take meaningful steps to confront this menace that devours the minds of their young. Patrons of the Community like the ACJU and the Shura Council should take the initiative to wean the young generations away from the destructive Salafist interpretations of Islam. The young generation should be taught that the Qur’anic verses that incite violence against the non-Muslims should be interpreted in the context of the time of Prophet Mohammed when he had to confront the numerous enemies to his nascent religion, as diverse as the Arabic tribes who were anti monotheistic to the Byzantine Christian armies. Faced with such enmity in all fronts Prophet Mohammed perhaps had to adopt harsh methods in order to prevail in an extremely hostile environment. Therefore, literal interpretations of Quran and Sunnah hardly do justice to the context within which such verses were first uttered. Therefore, it is up to the community leaders to lead their flock out from the darkness at noon and show them the true meaning of Islam, that of pious living in harmony with other communities of Sri Lanka. 

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