Sri Lanka

Written By: - Date published: 7:53 am, April 24th, 2019 - 13 comments
Categories: Christchurch Attack, Deep stuff, International, Politics, terrorism - Tags:

Sri Lanka National Flag

It has taken me a while to comprehend what has happened in Sri Lanka.  321 people killed in churches and hotels because of the coordinated actions of a number of suicide bombers.  And news that the Sri Lankan Government was warned a couple of weeks ago that something like this was being planned.

And now as the dust settles the allegations start with suggestions being made that the attacks were ISIS inspired responses to what happened in Christchurch.

From Radio New Zealand:

A Sri Lanka official says initial investigation shows Easter Sunday bombings were a retaliation against New Zealand mosque attack.

A series of coordinated blasts in churches and hotels hit Sri Lanka on Sunday leaving 321 people dead and 500 injured.

“The initial investigation has revealed that this was in retaliation for the New Zealand mosque attack,” junior minister for defence Ruwan Wijewardene told parliament.

“It was done by National Thawheed Jama’ut along with JMI,” he said, referring to another local group, Jammiyathul Millathu Ibrahim.

However, the Associated Press said Mr Wijewardene made the statement about retaliation “without providing evidence or explaining where the information came from”.

It is hard to know what credence to put on the statement.  Normally you would expect someone more senior to make such a claim.  Or at least to provide evidence.

The claim has been questioned by the New Zealand Government which has released a statement saying this:

We have seen reports of the statement from the Sri Lankan Minister of state for defence, alleging a link between the the Easter Sunday terrorist attack and the March 15 attack in Christchurch.

We understand the Sri Lankan investigation into the attack is in its early stages. New Zealand has not yet seen any intelligence upon which such an assessment might be based.

New Zealanders oppose terrorism and extreme violence in all its forms. In the wake of the Christchurch mosque attacks, it was the condemnation of the perpetrators of violence and a message of peace that unified us all.

ISIS has claimed responsibility.  Of course it would.

Paul Buchanan has also cast doubt on the claim and questioned whether such an event could be organised in the short time since the Christchurch atrocity occurred.  He has also urged everyone to not see this as a “clash of civilisations”.  Such talk will only make strange people do strange things.

The events will reopen slowly healing wounds.

Be kind to each other.

 

 

13 comments on “Sri Lanka ”

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  1. marty mars 1
    24 April 2019 at 8:34 am

    I'd just like to acknowledge the pain and suffering of the victims and their families. There has been a lot of war and killing in that country and this atrocity will really hurt. So much trauma for people to somehow get through – years and years of work for people ahead. Kia kaha and arohanui.

    As to why – hate of others – intolerance, bigotry, fear.

  2. Enough is Enough 2
    24 April 2019 at 10:09 am

    This is the kind of response [deleted – MS] would have wanted. A war between civilisations.

    Lets not get sucked into that. Until there is definitive proof of who committed this atrocity, lets not allow Islamic Fundamentalists, or deranged White Supremacists portray this as something it isn't.

    • Enough is Enough 2.1
      24 April 2019 at 11:57 am

      Aha – He who must not be named?

      I will remember the voldemort rule in the future

  3. Anne 3
    24 April 2019 at 10:13 am

    My reaction on hearing the claim from the Sri Lankan Minister is that preparation for an attack was probably well underway prior to the 15th March, but the Sri Lankan attackers took advantage of the Christchurch incident and claimed it as a reprisal attack.

    Something must have happened for this Minister to make the claim in the first place.

  4. Enough is Enough 4
    24 April 2019 at 10:48 am

    I'm in moderation?

    • Dennis Frank 4.1
      24 April 2019 at 11:26 am

      Google's definition of moderation: "the avoidance of excess or extremes, especially in one's behaviour or political opinions." So as long as you only express moderate opinions, then yes, you are indeed in a state of moderation. You could even become a Labour MP on that basis.

      However, us here in kiwiland tend to make it up as we go along, so it wouldn't surprise me if the powers that be here have devised their own in-house meaning of the term…

    • Dukeofurl 4.2
      25 April 2019 at 11:02 am

      read back to your earlier comment
      This is the kind of response [deleted – MS] would have wanted

      Google has nothing to do with it . Google is a search engine !

      • lprent 4.2.1
        25 April 2019 at 11:15 am

        Google has nothing to do with it . Google is a search engine !

        I have no idea what you’re talking about. However…

        Actually it isn’t. Google is a major conglomerate company largely owned by Alphabet. One of their many products is a search engine. Another is the Android operating system, used by something like two billion devices. Another is GMail, used by more than a billion people monthly. Not to mention the chrome browser.

        I personally routinely use something like 10-12 of their products daily.

        • Dukeofurl 4.2.1.1
          25 April 2019 at 5:55 pm

          Thats right . Aphabet as they now call themselves have swathes of products. Just yesterday I realised they have something caller Blogger for hosting blogs a bit like WordPress I suppose.[You host the Standard website as its System Admin- I see we have some new text editor features , Thank You, but my spell checker is inactive so Ill sort that out]

          In the context of ordinary people , Google is thought of as the search engine, maybe some will think of the Chrome internet browser but likely use that term. It certainly doesnt moderate this blog or others outside 'Blogger'

    • lprent 4.3
      25 April 2019 at 11:17 am

      Not that I’m aware of.

      You have to remember that occasionally the automatics will catch you.

  5. RedLogix 5
    24 April 2019 at 10:43 pm

    Does anyone imagine this will be the last massacre? This is so dangerous, there is nothing safe to say about it.

  6. Exkiwiforces 6
    24 April 2019 at 11:15 pm

    With IS now having a very decentralised Command, Control and Communications (C3) and leaving it to small individual cells throughout the world. Then this is quite possibly in the realms of an IS sponsored attack and this was one David Kilcullen’s assumptions once IS crease to be an organisation once the West and Russian backed allies killed IS off and forcing them underground with a decentralised C3.
    Davids book called “Blood Year: The Unraveling of Western Counterterrorism” is worth reading as is his book before this one on “The Coming Age of the Urban Guerrilla” which talks about a decentralised terror cells in a urban in environment in both active and passive forms of warfare.