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NEWSWEEK MAGAZINE

What's Going On in Sri Lanka? A

History of War and Violence, Now
Bombings Interrupt Peace
BY TOM O'CONNOR ON 04/21/19 AT 3:47 PM EDT

Sri Lankan security personnel keep watch outside the church following a blast at the St. Anthony's Shrine in
Kochchikade in Colombo on April 21. Eight bombings killed almost 300 people during a time of relative
peace in an island nation just recently rocked by more than two decades of civil war.
ISHARA S. KODIKARA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

WORLD RELIGION WAR HISTORY CONFLICT

A series of bombings on Sunday morning killed almost 300 people at churches and
hotels across Sri Lanka, a nation with a troubled history of inter-ethnic and faith-
fueled violence.

The attacks appeared to target the country's Christian community as scores celebrated
the religion's most sacred day, Easter Sunday. A number of the bombings occurred at
churches while worshipers were attending Mass.

Majority-Buddhist Sri Lanka is home to several major religious minorities, including

Hindus (12.6 percent of the population), Muslims (9.7 percent) and Christians (7.4
percent, who are predominantly Roman Catholic), according to a 2012 estimate cited by
the CIA World Factbook.

While Buddhists were mostly part of the country's Sinhalese ethnic group, Sri Lankan
and Indian Tamils adhered mostly to Hinduism, and there was a strong Christian
minority. Tamil-speaking Muslims, however, were considered Moors, as they traced their
history back to Arab traders who settled in the region centuries ago.
Conflicts between religions in the country have led to frequent civil wars in the island nation
Competing interests and armed conflict among these groups turned the small South
Asian island state into a war zone between 1983 and 2009, largely pitting the mostly
Sinhalese government against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. This separatist
insurgent group also targeted Muslims, who have continued to endure discrimination
even in peacetime as evidenced by mostly Sinhalese riots that broke out in the eastern
town of Ampara last year, resulting in massive destruction of property and at least two
deaths.

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Sri Lankan security personnel keep watch outside the church premises following a blast at the St. Anthony's
Shrine in Kochchikade in Colombo on April 21. Eight bombings killed more than 200 people during a time of
relative peace in an island nation just recently rocked by over two decades of civil war.
ISHARA S. KODIKARA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

The Tamil Tigers, considered a terrorist group by the United States government, fought a
largely guerilla war against the state but also had access to aircraft and conducted
occasional bombings and kamikaze-style suicide raids resembling the September 11,
2001, attacks in the U.S.

Though much of the quarter-century civil war that killed up to 100,000 people was
focused between the government and Tamils, Muslims were subject to massacres and
forced relocation throughout the conflict in incidents largely blamed on the Tamil Tigers.

The Tamil Tigers ultimately surrendered amid a government onslaught overseen by

former President Mahinda Rajapaksa in 2009. Current President Maithripala Sirisena
attempted to appoint Rajapaksa as prime minister last year, resulting in a constitutional
crisis as Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe refused to resign.

Sri Lankan officials inspect St. Sebastian's Church in Negombo, north of Colombo, after multiple explosions
targeting churches and hotels across Sri Lanka on April 21, 2019, in Negombo, Sri Lanka.
PHOTO BY STRINGER/GETTY IMAGES

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Sri Lanka PM: May Have Been Warning Ahead of Attacks

Sri Lanka Attacks: Everything We Know

The end of the war helped Buddhism flourish while suppressing other religions such as Islam

Since the end of the war, the country has witnessed a rise in Sinhalese Buddhist
nationalism, with groups such as Bodu Bala Sena seeking to suppress the
representation of other factions on the island, especially Muslims. At the same time,
some Muslims were believed to have joined the Islamic State militant group (ISIS), which
has claimed responsibility for mass-casualty attacks at sites, including churches, around
the world.
the targets of the attacks are focusing on religious sites of other religions
No group had claimed responsibility for the Easter bombings by Sunday evening, as the
death toll reached 207, with more than twice that number injured. Blasts targeted
religious sites such as St. Anthony's Shrine in the capital city of Colombo, St. Sebastian's
Church in Negombo and Zion Church in Batticaloa as well as high-end hotels including
the Shangri-La, Cinnamon Grand, Kingsbur and New Tropical Inn also in the capital and
its suburbs.

Among the dead were at least 11 foreign nationals, including three Indians, one
Portuguese citizen, two from Turkey, three holding United Kingdom passports and two
with U.S. and U.K. nationalities, according to the Sri Lanka Foreign Ministry.

Wickremesinghe and his administration have pointed to a potential link to the deadly
bombings, however. National Integration Minister Mano Ganesan revealed on Twitter
that one "week before, my Ministerial Security Division (MSD) officers had been warned
by their Division on two suspected suicide bombers in Colombo targeting politicians."
Wickremesinghe appeared upset that he nor other officials were informed.

"We must look into why adequate precautions were not taken. Neither I nor the ministers
were kept informed," the leader said, while asserting that "for now the priority is to
apprehend the attackers."

"First and foremost we have to ensure that terrorism does not lift its head in Sri Lanka,"
he added.

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A letter published by The New York Times appeared to show security forces had been
actively seeking to disrupt a potential plot against churches by a Muslim militant group
known as National Thowheeth Jama'ath. The group was reportedly linked last year to the
vandalization of Buddhist statues, an act that sparked outrage in a country already
rattled by religious tensions.
many Muslim groups were suspected for disrupting potential plots against the churches
Up to 13 suspects have reportedly been arrested in connection with the bombings,
though Sri Lankan Defense Minister Ruwan Wijewardene called on media outlets to not
identify them, instructing: "Don't give extremists a voice. Don't help to make them
martyrs."

Sri Lankan officials inspect St. Sebastian's Church in Negombo, north of Colombo, after multiple explosions
targeting churches and hotels across Sri Lanka on April 21 in Negombo, Sri Lanka
STRINGER/GETTY IMAGES

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