Columns

Every year for the last seven damning years, a precious stock of the nation’s tears has been held in store to be ritually wept during April for those who died and for those who were left maimed and injured in what the world commonly calls ‘Sri Lanka’s Easter tragedy of 21st April 2019′.

A Sunday later, under the headline, ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’ the opening paragraphs of the SUNDAY PUNCH commented as follows:

‘They were not on the battlefield of war but in silent prayer at the Temple of God, come to celebrate the resurrection of their Lord Jesus Christ when tragedy struck on Easter Sunday morning, leaving 269 dead, the innocent victims of a deadly Islamic suicidal attack.

‘Many of them had observed Lent for forty days in steadfast faith and fast, sacrificing some favourite food, drink or pursuit; had, with Jesus, walked up Calvary, sharing the cross he was forced to bear; and had eagerly awaited Easter to dawn to attend mass and then return home in peace and goodwill to all to partake of the traditional, celebratory Easter Sunday family lunch. Unbeknown to them all, it was to be the last Easter Sunday repast they would never feast upon.

‘As news broke of an explosion at the miracle St Anthony’s Church in Kochchikade, Colombo, followed by blasts at St Sebastian’s Church in Negombo and Zion Church in Batticaloa while devotees attended Easter Mass, the nation was stunned to its core. Further reports of explosions at the Cinnamon Grand, Shangri-La and Kingsbury hotels whilst the Easter Sunday brunch was being served left the country in grim dismay and disbelief. One week later, on this Sunday morning, the nation still remains shell-shocked.’

Seven years after, the nation still remains soul-shocked.

What had been reserved as a day to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus – after mourning his crucifixion on Good Friday two days earlier – suddenly became a shocking nightmare even for a nation that had weathered a 30-year terrorist war.

But however terror-beaten and fear-crested we might have been in the recent decades, these sacrilegious attacks against Catholic churches awoke every raw pore of feeling inherent in the people, as all religions – including Islam – not only condemned but also perceived the violent blasphemy as one hurled against their own.

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The tears of grief that fell that day from the eyes of families mourning their dead and their maimed – that may well still fall, though unbeknown to us all – and through the collective grief of a nation – expressed loud with shock – arose that day as it arises today, grave questions the Lankan public demanded the governments of that day to answer even as they demand the government of the day to provide answers.

For never in the field of Lanka’s terrorist history had so many warnings been given, where so many in authority had known but so few in power had been told, seeking refuge in parroting the signature tune, ‘I didn’t know.’

Consider the merry-go-round of events that inexorably led to the carnage. It was almost as if the tragedy was destined to happen. Not because the fates willed it but because complacency coupled with criminal negligence caused it to happen.

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So much so that even when a Catholic UNP minister of the Yahapalana government, Minister Harin Fernando, got wind of it when his ailing father whispered the news doing the Colombo rounds on Saturday and warned him not to attend Holy Mass on Easter morn – which, needless to say, the ever-obedient sonna-boy rigidly observed like a Sunday prayer.

After his father’s warning had rung true, he held a news conference on that black Easter Sunday eve, hours after the event: ‘My father told me not to attend Easter Mass because he had been told by an old CID friend of his that churches would be attacked on Sunday. He specifically mentioned St Anthony’s Church in Kochchikade. I said, ‘Are you mad?’ and left.’

Nevertheless, he heeded it.

Perhaps, unbeknown to Harin – who knows – for Almighty God works in mysterious ways – he had been chosen as God’s own messenger to deliver the missive to save the innocents from the dreadful fate that awaited them on Easter morn.

Later, when attacked by the media, clergy and politicians for keeping his sire’s life-saving warning to himself, he pleaded in the House: ‘Don’t shoot the messenger.’

‘Why ever not?’ the Sunday Punch asked. ‘He did not deliver the message.’

Seven years of an unsolved Easter mystery have naturally given birth to a countless litter of books on the subject. A new book that claims to tell all about the Easter mastermind was out this week.

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Launched this Tuesday, it is written by former minister Udaya Gammanpila and titled ‘Searching for the Mastermind Behind the Easter Attack’. The author – a one-man opposition band – who singlehandedly maintains the beat of the vibrant sounds that pulsate far from the fringes of Diyawanna’s banks and backs every claim with figures and facts, states his investigative masterpiece has been written after a scholarly odyssey he had made into the academic world of scientific study.

Gammanpila ambitiously hopes his academic pursuit – which took him, as he says, a persevering year and a half to write – will become the ultimate book on the subject, the mother of all tomes on Sri Lanka’s Easter Bomb Blast Tragedy destined to neuter every book in the womb of a writer’s mind. His declared thoughts may seem a touch too presumptuous, even for a blurb for a book on a highly controversial subject.

A book may sell on its cover but certainly not on the gallons of sweat the author has shed while writing it. But whether his book lives up to his own expectations or not, it will certainly spawn a new generation of books to ensure the political controversy is kept alive and nicely fed.

But the real victims – the grieving families of those that died and those that were left maimed – have been forced to remain largely unfed. These victims have suffered a double blow. They have seen their loved ones blasted to smithereens whilst at prayer in church attending Easter morning mass due to state negligence.

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They have watched with growing curiosity and mystified gaze makeshift pulpits of every known and unknown hue, built on the graves of their beloved dead to advance – nothing else – than their own agendas, unscrupulously using the long-suffering plight of these families as fodder to keep their political campaigns fed for their own gains. The elusive search for the Easter Bomb Blast Mastermind will never end until each powerful party’s most advantageous mastermind to pin the blame on is first found.

Promises have been recklessly dished out – like confetti at a wedding – to catch the Catholic ballot and transgressed with impunity after winning presidential power. The faint and feeble voice of the ghost of an opposition left in Parliament has used each transgression to hurl their darts against life-size posters of ruling government figures found inside the Opposition Leader’s Office in Parliament.

An unnerving disquiet seemed to linger in the air regarding whether these bereaved families would receive – forget divine justice for a moment – at least earthly succour. But their long night of suffering drew to a close in 2023, when the Supreme Court delivered judgment that considerably lessened their economic woes.

President’s Counsel Shammil Perera, appeared as the Cardinal’s advocate to protect the legal rights of his aggrieved flock. President’s Counsel Sanjeeva Jayawardena appeared for the Bar Association.

On 12th January 2023 a bench of seven judges of the Supreme Court comprising Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya, PC, Justices B.P. Aluwihare, PC, L.T.B. Dehideniya, Murdu N.B. Fernando, PC, S. Thurairaja, PC, A.H.M.D. Nawaz and A.L. Shiran Gooneratne delivered the highly anticipated judgment pertaining to the Easter Sunday Bomb Attacks in 2019.

D.L.&F. de Saram, a leading Sri Lankan firm of solicitors, gave their ‘brief overview of the Supreme Court judgment’ which is as follows:

•  ‘When considering the matter of compensation, the court made reference to the judicial device of constitutional tort, namely, the violation of the fundamental rights of a person or citizen by the State and/or the state is vicariously liable for the acts of its agencies or employees.’

•  ‘The Supreme Court also went on to hold that the State was liable to compensate the victims of the attacks for the incalculable harm and damage caused to people and property on the basis of just and equitable jurisdiction. The court also went on to refer to the “Right to Life” as another basis on which State Liability is predicated.’

•  ‘Thereafter the Supreme Court proceeded to make orders directing for a Victims Fund to be established at the Office for Reparation to award compensation in a fair and equitable manner to the victims and their families.‘

• ‘The Court also directed the former President, IGP, Secretary of Defence, CNI, and State to pay Rs. 100 million, Rs. 75 million, Rs. 50 million, Rs. 10 million, and Rs. 1 million respectively to the Victims Fund.’

• ‘The Office for Reparation was directed to investigate the alleged underpayment and non-payment, and invite any generous benefactors and donors to contribute and also a progress report to be made available to Court within 6 months. The Attorney General was also directed to coordinate and take disciplinary action against Nilantha Jayawardena.’

• ‘The Supreme Court directed on the date of the judgment, that the case be taken up within 6 months of the date of the judgment to ascertain the status of compliance of the above orders.’

As for finding the elusive mastermind behind the Easter blast tragedy, and granting divine justice to the victims, perhaps divine justice is not in mortal hands to grant.

When Jesus was once asked to whom a coin stamped with the face of Caesar belonged, he wisely replied: ‘Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.’

We have left economic justice to a manmade earthly court and found it for the victims of the Easter bomb blast tragedy. What could be done in this earthly province has been done to the best of man’s abilities.

Isn’t it best we understand our own limitations? Leave the fruits we have plucked from our garden tree on behalf of the victims to be enjoyed by them in peace? And be content with that?

One may petition the heavens for justice for an injustice he has endured; yet no assembly can stand in his stead, for a soul’s plea cannot be whispered by proxy.

In the Sermon on the Mount, did not Jesus say: ‘But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.’

Rather than make the search to find the mastermind behind Easter Sunday’s blast a national obsession, and strive in the mistaken belief that man can play God and deliver justice found solely in the divine realm, isn’t it better to realise the folly of ambition’s prayers? And should it so wish, the malice of heaven to grant it?

As the 17th-century English poet James Shirley wrote in his poem ‘Death the Leveller’, ‘There is no armour against fate.’ Now come to think of it, nor is there any against faith.