President, have you spoken to the Catholic Bishops Conference?

“You take a piece of paper by the Cardinal, and you are reading it out there. Have you spoken to the Bishops’ Conference?” repeatedly asked President Ranil Wickremesinghe in his infamous interview with German television recently. The head of state was accusing the journalist of only considering the opinion of Archbishop of Colombo Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith who has been demanding justice for the Easter Sunday attacks that killed more than 260 civilians, mostly Catholics praying inside churches.

The insinuation by President Wickremesinghe was there is a plurality of opinion among the Catholic clergy in their quest for justice. The President who outright ruled out any international investigation into the attacks after the UK based Channel Four exposed the possible involvement of State agents, channelled his anger towards the cardinal who has now internationalised his efforts for justice.

To begin with, justice for the victims of the Easter Sunday attacks should not be a ‘negotiation’ between the President, Cardinal or the Bishops’ Conference. The responsibility of the President and the Government is to ensure there is a credible investigation, identify the culprits and prosecute them to the full force of the law. None of these steps requires ‘deals’ between the President and the bishops or executive and the victims.

Secondly, and most importantly, in this case the Catholic Bishops Conference has come out and stated categorically that they do not have any divergence of opinion with the Cardinal in their demands for justice. The Bishops’ Conference President Rev. Dr. Harold Anthony Perera last week made this position abundantly clear. He once again called for the implementation of the recommendations made by the Presidential Commission of Inquiry in its final report handed over to former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in February 2021. The bishops have also pointed out to the President that any reference by him to the Cardinal in a singular manner “undermines the collegiality of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference” since the Cardinal is not acting alone but “is an integral and most vital member” of the Conference.

Since the attacks took place, there have been a number of calls for an international level probe into these attacks. One of the key revelations by President Wickremesinghe during his Germen television interview was that there had in fact been investigations by foreign law enforcement agencies. “The FBI report says that no one outside was involved. We had the FBI, we had the Scot, British police, we had the Australians, we had the Indians, we had the Chinese all there. And the Pakistanis,” said Wickremesinghe.

The President needs to clarify what he means by “no one outside was involved.” Does he mean that no outside entity such as the ISIS terrorist group was involved or outside entities to the terrorists’ cell such as Sri Lanka’s State intelligence agents accused in the Channel Four documentary were involved in these attacks? Either way now that he has claimed there had been investigations by foreign agencies, President Wickremesinghe must disclose those findings and make them available to the public. The Catholic Bishops’ Conference has asked exactly for this from the President, demanding to see copies of the Easter attacks reports of the FBI, British police, and secret services of India, China, Australia and Pakistan, that he referred to in the interview.

In the same spirit President Wickremesinghe demanded from the German journalist whether he had spoken to the Catholic Bishops’ Conference, it needs to be asked of him, have you Mister President?