Remembering the Easter 2019 Bombing Victims in Sri Lanka

The Colombo terror attacks was one of the darkest days in he history of Sri Lanka. I was unfortunate to experience it first hand.

On 21 April 2019 Easter, Sunday, three churches in Sri Lanka?and three luxury hotels in the commercial capital, Colombo, were targeted in a series of coordinated?ISIS-related terrorist suicide bombings. The three large attacks were followed on the same day by two smaller explosions that occurred at a housing complex in Dematagoda and at a guest house in Dehiwala.

During the coordinated attacks a total of 269 people were killed,?including at least 45 foreign nationals,?three police officers, and eight suicide bombers. An additional 500 were injured.

The impact on victims was devastating. The impact on tourism (a major source of income) was disastrous.

It is important that terrorism is never condoned for any reason, be it in Ukraine, Sri Lanka, the Middle East, and ironically even against Russia which is a perpetrator of ongoing terrorism in Ukraine. The scars take generations to heal and the ill-will that events like this create take generations to end.

I would like to point out, however, that the resilience of the Sri Lankan people serves as a beacon of hope to other countries that are suffering this scourge. I enjoy working in Sri Lanka, its economy is recovering, and its people remain some of the friendliest in the world.

I hope that as we celebrate Easter and Ramadan that we can all become ambassadors of hope and peaceful existence.