CMU joins in the call for Human Chain protest against inaction over Easter Sunday attacks

Human Chain to be formed along the side of the Colombo-Negombo Main Road on both sides by 8.30 a.m. starting from St Anthony’s Church Kochchikade and St Sebastian’s Church, Katuwapitiya, Negombo; observance of silence at 8.45 a.m. 

The Ceylon Mercantile, Industrial and General Workers’ Union (CMU) said that it supported the call made by the Catholic Church upon citizens to create a strong human chain today (Friday, April 21), demanding truth and justice for the victims who died in the 2019 Easter Sunday bomb attacks.
In a media communiqué, the CMU said that the CMU had always stood for justice, especially for the oppressed and the exploited. 

“We have consistently called for the prosecution of perpetrators of crimes against the people. In keeping with this proud tradition, we call upon our members to support the democratic protest action, wherever they can, on April 21 and to observe two minutes of silence at 8.45 a.m. at their workplaces to express their solidarity with the call made for justice for the Easter Sunday victims,” the CMU said.

“Despite the recommendations of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI) to institute criminal proceedings against former President Maithripala Sirisena and others, no action has been taken by the Attorney General to do so. Neither has the Police Department adhered to the recommendations of the PCoI to initiate Departmental Investigations into the conduct of several senior Police Officers. 

“What is especially disturbing about the Easter Sunday attacks is that it is now widely suspected that these horrific attacks could have been callously engineered to gain political advantage electorally. 
“In Sri Lanka, successive Governments have over the years sought to brazenly protect perpetrators of acts of violence by politicians, State agencies and individuals against the people, even when there has been overwhelming evidence of such crimes. For too long they have got away with this.  

“It is utterly hypocritical of this same government that has failed to pursue the truth behind these brutal terrorist attacks to now be in a great hurry to bring an Anti-terrorism Bill. The efforts of the Church to confront this abuse of state power must be lauded and supported,” the CMU said in its statement. 
Four years have elapsed since the terror attacks carried out by suicide bombers against families gathered in Churches and hotels on Easter Sunday of 2019 across Sri Lanka that saw the deaths of 272 people.  The dead included 45 children, while scores were seriously injured, and 179 children lost one or both parents.