Five years on from the Easter Sunday bomb attack in Sri Lanka, victims are still awaiting justice and urging Australian Catholics to pray for them.
On Easter Sunday, 21 April 2019, synchronised bombings targeted three churches and three hotels in Sri Lanka. More than 273 people died – among them 45 children and 40 foreign nationals, including Australians. Around 500 others were injured, many seriously, including some disabled for life.
Many Australians have joined annual memorial services to express their solidarity with victims.
But despite many promises, pledges, assurances and investigations by Colombo, the families of the bereaved feel they are no nearer the truth, justice for the victims or answers.
Anusha Kumari, whose family was caught up in the attack on St Sebastian’s Church in Negombo near the capital, told the BBC in 2020: “My husband and my two children were killed only once. I die every second.”
Saranya, 25, was nine months pregnant when a bomb went off at St Anthony’s Church in the capital Colombo in 2019. Her husband was killed in the attack. Just a day later, she gave birth to their son.
“My husband never saw his son,” she told AFP news agency in 2020. “My baby will be one year old on the 22nd, but how can we celebrate. It is a day after his father’s death anniversary. It is a sad day for us.”
Sri Lanka’s Catholics, led by Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, Archbishop of Colombo, have urged politicians, judges and law enforcement authorities to expedite investigations and bring those responsible before the courts to ensure justice.
Pope Francis has also pledged to seek justice for the victims.
The Catholic Church has engaged with international organisations and the Archbishop of Colombo recently addressed the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva. https://webtv.un.org/en/asset/k12/k129wxiz26.
A group of Sri Lankan expatriates in Australia launched the Australia-Sri Lanka Forum for Justice for the Easter Sunday Victims in 2021 to enhance awareness of the ongoing quest for justice.
With the support of local churches, the forum has conducted memorial services across Australia on the anniversary of the attack to pray for the departed souls and bring solace to the injured and their families.
Archbishop of Perth and President of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, Timothy Costelloe, has backed a call by Cardinal Ranjith for a prayer to be included in church services on 21 April – the fifth anniversary of the bomb attack:
“We pray for the victims of the 2019 Easter Sunday bomb attack in Sri Lanka. May the merciful Lord grant justice to the victims, healing to the injured, hope and strength to the disabled and paralysed, consolation to the bereaved families and eternal rest to the deceased. In your mercy.”