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The Archdiocese of Colombo has the ardent desire to begin the process of canonization of 171 Catholic faithful killed in the terrorist attack on Easter Sunday 2019, in order to honor their “martyrs of the faith.”
More than two years after Sri Lanka’s decades-long conflict officially ended, the whereabouts of 630 children are unknown, according to a government database. Most went missing during the final phase of the war that ended on 18 May 2009, when government forces declared victory over the now defeated Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who had been fighting for an independent Tamil homeland since 1983. According to reports cited by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), 64% of those missing were recruited by the LTTE while 30% were last seen behind government lines.
“Is it a celebration of victory of peaceful, peace-loving people over those who were violent or those who were terrorists? Or is it a celebration of the victory of one group over another? Will this victory lead to a dominant and suppressive authority in the hands of one group over another group who will be made refugees or internally displaced for long years or for eternity?” For Sarath Fernando, moderator of the Movement of Lands and agriculture reform and human rights activist, Sri Lanka needs to start answering these decisive questions for its future. The fate of the refugees and the society that will be born out of almost 30 years of war: these are the issues that are beginning to concern the people of the Island nations’ south as celebrations of the government’s victory over the Tamil Tigers’ wind down.
“The Tamil civilians affected by the violent conflict underway are experiencing a second tsunami,” this is the advisory being sent out by Fr. Ajith Perera, a priest from Trincolmalee who has been at Tamil refugee camps, helping people with material and spiritual support.
The Catholic Church in Sri Lanka is closely following the legal process of the new anti-conversion law that has been presented in recent days to the country’s Parliament. It is a strong measure being taken by the political parties of Buddhist influence, which will now be up for debate. The law, based on the model already approved in several states of India, would “impede the conversion of a person from one religion to the other, if carried out with the use of force, trickery, or fraudulent measures.”
