SRI LANKA: Bishop deplores spiraling violence, recent political assassinations
Episcopal News Service. January 16, 2008 [011608-03]
Matthew Davies
The January 8 assassination of Sri Lanka Parliamentarian D.M. Dassanayake and his bodyguard "adds to the long and unending list of utterly senseless killings that continue to engulf us and must be condemned," said Colombo Bishop Duleep de Chickera.
"In today's chaotic culture of contending power struggles, this could well be the work of any one of the several armed groups that operate with impunity," the Sri Lanka-based bishop said in a January 10 statement. "Yet, the greater probability is that it is the work of the LTTE."
According to recent reports, more than 70,000 people have died since the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels began fighting in 1983 for a separate homeland in Sri Lanka's north and east. A cease-fire in 2002 brought a period of relative calm, but violence surged in December 2005 and has since killed more than 5,000 people, according to reports.
In Sri Lanka, the Anglican Church is known as the Church of Ceylon, one of the extra-provincial churches in the Anglican Communion. De Chickera is Bishop of Colombo, one of the church's two dioceses.
De Chickera offered the Church's condolences and prayers to the families of the assassinated and for a speedy recovery of the several other Ministerial Security Division personnel and civilians who were injured.
The bishop warned of an escalation of violence in Sri Lanka due to the abrogation of the cease-fire agreement, the desperation of the LTTE and imminent elections in the East. "We are fast heading towards the option of chaos and destruction that only the few on both sides who manipulate our political destiny do not seem to mind," he said, noting that recent assassinations along with intimidation of media personnel connected with the state-controlled media "reveal that the enemy has always been dissent, no matter from where or whom."
De Chickera acknowledged that the "strongest hope for a return to normalcy and peace is a collective people's return to common sense.
"Yet, may we never give up hope for our beloved Sri Lanka," he added. "May we return to our senses and pray and work for peace through change. May the God of creation and change encourage our visions of peace and inspire and accompany us."