The ‘Diyawanna Declaration’ was launched at a special all faith and all party conference convened at Parliament by the Select Committee of Parliament for National and Religious Harmony yesterday.
They called on the President, Prime Minister and the Opposition Leader to work together regardless of narrow political, religious or party differences, emphasising the need for the three arms of government, the Executive, Legislature and the Judiciary to work smoothly with mutual understanding.
Addressing the gathering, Speaker Karu Jayasuriya thanked everyone for having acted responsibly and prevented this situation escalating into a huge catastrophe after the Easter Sunday attacks.
“I render by sincere gratitude to Colombo Archbishop Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith for addressing the Catholic community convincingly to avert any retaliation or further bloodshed. From the moment the incident occurred, he acted to calm the people and ensured that no one over reacted.We also managed to bring all political leaders together to work in unison to bring the situation under control,” he said, adding that many countries have pledged their support to Sri Lanka in this time of need.
The Speaker also called on the media to report in a responsible manner. He noted that although curfew is required to ensure peace in the country, it has a negative impact on the country’s economy and said normalcy must be restored as soon as possible.
Opposition Leader Mahinda Rajapaksa said, “The Cardinal’s actions at a time of such an incident is highly commendable. His words of wisdom to the people was instrumental in averting a massive catastrophe in the country.The perpetrators must be punished.We need to create religious harmony and reconciliation in the country to avert future incidents,” he added.
President for All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama, Mufti M.I.M Rizwie said the Muslims love Sri Lanka which is their motherland and want to live and die in this country. “I want to thank all religious leaders, especially the Cardinal who played a very special role.The entire country must thank him for the role he played to calm the situation.The entire country must thank him as no one can forget what he has done.”
Speaking about the ISIS terror group he said on July 7, 2014 he had spoken on SLBC and in 2015 he had met the State Defence Minister and handed over a document to him about these suspects. “The Muslims came out with a declaration about the ISIS and that they had nothing to do with Islam. This declaration came out in 2015 and we handed it over to the Defence Secretary on July 23, 2015 and urged him to please take action against them. At that time the responsible people in defence came up with 100 names and we told them to arrest them.They told us they wanted to counsel them.
Then in January 2019 also we handed a document to the Defence Secretary with the names of these suspects and asked them to take action, but they did not act upon it,” he said.
He said the perpetrators of these crimes are terrorists and has nothing to do with Islam. Therefore, he said, “As we dealt with the LTTE, please deal with this ISIS group. They have nothing to do with Islam.We Muslims are not terrorists in this country.We want to live in peace and harmony with the rest of our countrymen.This culprit Zahran should be punished. I urged the Defence Secretary in January this year to arrest him, but they wanted to counsel him. At least now take action to deal with these terrorists,” he said.
Expressing her views former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga said as someone committed to peace, harmony and reconciliation she sees this incident as the most tragic incident ever to take place in the country. “Even during the height of LTTE terrorism we have never witnessed six bombs go off at once within just half an hour causing so much destruction and loss of life.”
She said if ISIS has come to a state where they could carry out such attacks in this country, then it is a grave situation. “There are many questions whether this incident could have been stopped and who the perpetrators are, but I won’t go there. After 2015, we took great measures to establish reconciliation in the country. But with the April 21 incident all we had done has been weakened. However, we won’t be deterred and we will forge forward in our efforts to ensure peace, unity and reconciliation,” the former President assured. She suggested that reconciliation should commence with children and said a programme has already been launched targeting schoolchildren.
Ven.Thiniyawala Palitha Thera said the damage has already been done and now we must stand up stronger. “These politicians don’t have the answers.The two main parties have deceived the people with their words over the past 70 years. Don’t believe them. Now the country’s future lies in the hands of the youth. This is the final chance.
People are born with the tendency to acquire things and Muslims have a greater knack for it than the rest of the country.
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