Conger

The Bishop of Colombo has called upon all “right minded people” to condemn the murder of a government minister and over a dozen athletes in Sri Lanka’s latest sectarian terror attack.

On April 6 the minister for roads Jeyaraj Fernandopulle was killed in a bomb blast that also took the lives of a number of athletes, coaches and policemen. “A sporting event planned to build community ended with an abrupt and violent shattering of community,” Bishop Duleep de Chickera said.

Fernandopulle (pictured) and 13 others were killed by a bomb that exploded at the start of a marathon outside Colombo. “This is most likely the work of the LTTE [Tamil Tigers],” Bishop de Chickera said, as it “follows closely on the Fort Railway Station Bombing” in which “several young schoolboy sportsmen from D S Senanayake College were killed.”

“The massacre of the innocents anywhere, benefits no just cause and has no place whatsoever in any agenda for dignity and peace for Sri Lankans,” the bishop said, as “such provocative acts of violence spread fear, suspicion and anger. They further widen the gap between our communities and further reduce whatever chances may have existed for peace conversations.”

In January the ceasefire with the rebels collapsed, and fighting between the majority Sinhalese government and Tamil rebels returned. Since 2005 over 8,000 people have died in the fighting and an estimated one million have been displaced.

Bishop de Chickera called upon the government and the rebels to return to the bargaining table and find a negotiated settlement. “No substantial democratic political agenda for peace and development will ever be achieved until this is done,” he said.

The Bishop of Colombo has denounced government indifference over attacks on the press in Sri Lanka, saying its inaction amounted to collusion with those who sought to stifle a free press.

The statement by Bishop Duleep de Chickera followed a series of politically motivated attacks on reporters and editors of the state controlled Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation (SLRC) television network. Five reporters who were critical of the government’s conduct of the war against Tamil separatists have been seriously injured by unknown assailants. The official police response has been the attacks are unrelated actions by small time hoodlums.

The church has also questioned the March 17 appointment of a retired army general to the post of director of administration of the television network, placing the broadcaster firmly in the hands of the military. Following the army takeover last Monday, police sealed off the station breaking up a threatened strike by staff.

Bishop de Chickera said the “continuing harassment and arrests of media persons are both disturbing and frustrating.”

The “focus of the nation” was now on the “brazen and systematic violence” meted out to reporters questioning the regime, and the “recent arrest and indefinite detention without access to lawyers of a group of journalists associated with a news web site and printing press,” he said.

The failure to stem the assaults was an “indictment against the entire police force.” While the police were quick to locate and arrest “those considered enemies of the State,” the government’s inaction in protecting journalists raised “questions of professional bias.

The Rt. Rev. Duleep de Chickera speaking to the Anglican delegates to the World Council of Churches Assembly in Brazil, Feb 17, 2006

The intensification of the civil war in Sri Lanka has elicited renewed calls for peace from the Anglican Church of Ceylon. 

The Bishop of Colombo, the Rt. Rev. Duleep de Chickera has condemned government air attacks on Tamil villages in northern Sri Lanka sheltering Tamil Tiger rebels, [LTTE] and the LTTE terror bombing campaign targeting Sinhalese civilian.

“The recent spate of calculated mayhem targeted against innocent civilians that collectively killed scores of civilians including school children, and injured many more,” he said on Feb 7, “must be condemned without reservation.”

The terrorist attacks demonstrated a “total disregard” for human life and were “counterproductive” to the cause of Tamil independence.  The LTTE attacks were stiffening the resolve of the government not to give in to terrorism and were leading “to the conversion of moderates to extremism,” he said.

He also noted his “great concern” about government air attacks on rebel-controlled bases.  Two church run orphanages were in rebel territory he said.  These children “live in fear and have nowhere to run except into their bunkers when the planes arrive. Please do everything possible to avoid harming these little ones,” he asked the government.

Bishop de Chickera urged Sri Lankans of all ethnic backgrounds “to remain calm under provocation and to do all we can to strengthen understanding and peaceful coexistence,” between the country’s ethnic communities.

The Bishop of Colombo has denounced attacks on opposition newspapers in Ceylon as an assault on free speech and democracy.

On Nov 21 the offices of the English-language newspapers papers the Sunday Leader and Morning Leader and the Sinhala-language Irudina Sinhala were firebombed. President Mahinda Rajapakse of Sri Lanka pledged his government would respond forcefully to the attacks.

Read it all in The Church of England Newspaper.

Archbishop Samuel San Si Htay of Myanmar (Burma) Photo from Global South Anglican

Church leaders have joined the chorus of support for pro-democracy activists in Burma, adding their voices to the denunciation of the military regime’s crackdown on protesters.

On Friday, Prime Minister Gordon Brown condemned the government’s violent attacks upon unarmed protestors, and called for the international community to intensify diplomatic efforts to bring an end to the crisis. The “word is watching” he said.

In a statement released by Downing Street, Mr. Brown said the protesters had been exercising “great bravery” by protesting peacefully. “I had hoped that the Burmese regime would heed the calls for restraint from the international community.

“But once again they have responded with oppression and force. This must cease,” he said on Sept 28.

The Anglican Primate of Burma, Archbishop Samuel San Si Htay of Rangoon told ENI, “We pray for peace and the future of the country.”

Archbishop Si Htay said a meeting had been planned with the country’s Roman Catholic bishops to forge a common front in response to the week of street protests in Rangoon and Mandalay. The Associated Press reported that on Sept 24 over 100,000 protesters led by Buddhist monks filled the streets of Rangoon staging the largest protest in 20 years to military rule.

The Bishop of Colombo, Duleep de Chickera called upon Burma’s ambassador to Sri Lanka, delivering an open letter deploring the violence. “As a fellow religious leader, I wish to express my solidarity with the commendable leadership provided by the Buddhist monks of Myanmar to this mass agitation.”

Archbishop Desmond Tutu on Sept 25 released a statement from Cape Town likening the marches to the non-violent protests against the apartheid regime in South Africa.

“It is so like the rolling mass action that eventually toppled apartheid,” the Nobel laureate said. “We admire our brave sisters and brothers in Burma and want them to know that we support their peaceful protests to end a vicious rule of oppression and injustice.”

Archbishop Tutu, who along with former Czech president Vaclav Havel has led the international campaign to bring Burma before the UN Security Council, called upon the military regime to release jailed opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and restore the rule of law.

“Victory is assured. They are on the winning side, the side of freedom, justice and democracy,” Archbishop Tutu said.

On Saturday however, the AP reported Rangoon’s streets were empty, with democracy activists awaiting further international support.

THE BISHOP of Colombo, Duleep de Chickera has denounced proposals from the Sri Lankan education ministry for schools to hold rallies in support of a government victory over rebel Tamil forces.

Last month the country’s education ministry ordered schools to celebrate the ‘victory’ of government forces following the capture of the Tamil Tigers’ jungle stronghold in Eastern Ceylon. “The indoctrination of trapped school communities,” Bishop de Chickera said on July 27, “with programmes highlighting images of war and the enemy is a serious violation of the vulnerability and dignity of our children, and must be condemned.”

There were no ‘winners and losers’ in Ceylon’s ethnic civil war between the majority Sinhalese and minority Tamil populations, he said.

“The recent escalation of the war agenda and war euphoria through special commemorative events is cause for concern,” he argued. “All who love and care for children, especially parents, educationalists, teachers and religious leaders, should counter this trend”.

Over 70,000 people have died since 1983 in the ethnic strife between separatist Tamil groups in Northern and Eastern Sri Lanka and the government. Ethnic Tamils account for 18 per cent of Sri Lanka’s 19 million people, while Sinhalese-speaking people, most of whom are Buddhists, make up 70 per cent of the population.

Christians must stand apart and become beacons of hope and peace in the midst of war, the Archbishop of Canterbury said during his visit to Sri Lanka yesterday. Preaching at the Cathedral Church of Christ the King in Kurunegala, Dr Rowan Williams stated: “When we find ourselves in the middle of conflict, of suffering, and even of despair, we as Christians have to say ‘we have food to give’. “And the food that we have to give is the promise that forgiveness is possible, that reconciliation is possible.”

Read it all in The Church of England Newspaper.