In an extensive article,
now expanded into a booklet and sent to the Pope, and others, I drew
attention to the threats to Bishop Rayappu Joseph, the (Tamil) Roman
Catholic Bishop of Mannar, members of his clergy (Tamils), members of
(Tamil) ‘Civil Society’, and even Sinhalese human rights
activists and journalists in the Sinhalese South, by the Government
of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, and some of his very violent
Ministers.
The ‘crime’
committed by Bishop Joseph
- Bishop Joseph has looked after his flock – not just Catholic Christians, but Christians of all denominations, non-Christians, and others. The Bible says that they are all God’s children – which Bishop Joseph has applied absolutely.
As
one of his clergy (Fr Jeyabalan Croos), in an appeal to the local
people has put it, “…the Bishop of Mannar who in the spirit of
the Prophets of the Bible and following the footsteps of our Great
Master Jesus Christ acted as the “voice of the voiceless” people
of Mannar and in the whole of North and East, and also in the whole
island of Sri Lanka.”
He is not
only the leader of the Catholic diocese in Mannar, but a
humanitarian, which is why his ‘elimination’ will affect us all.
2. Bishop Joseph, his clergy and members of ‘civil society’
have committed four ‘crimes’, in the eyes of the Government of
Sri Lanka (GoSL).
- Made a Submission to the LLRC (the so-called Lessons Learnt and Rehabilitation Commission of the GoSL).
- Contacted the US Officials from the State Department who arrived in Sri Lanka in February 2012 and apprised them of the humanitarian problems of the Tamil people in the North and East, and the expectations (and responsibilities) of the UN Human Rights Council (UN HRC).
- Made a direct Submission to the UN HRC in March 2012, with 31 Christian clergy in the Sri Lankan North.
- Sent a response to the UN HRC, setting out the downright lies presented to the UN HRC by the GoSL (Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe), and the real situation on the ground in the Tamil North and East.
I have dealt with these
in detail in my earlier publication. Here is a summary:
1. LLRC Submission
Amnesty
International (AI), Human Rights Watch (HRW) and International Crisis
Group (ICG), had refused to attend the LLRC stating, “There
is little point in appearing before a fundamentally flawed
commission. The Commission is nothing more than a cynical attempt by
Sri Lanka to avoid serious inquiry that would bring genuine
accountability”1.
This was followed a scathing 60-page document by AI, “When
will they get Justice? Failures of Sri Lanka’s Lessons Learnt and
Reconciliation Commission’2,
stating that it was “fundamentally
flawed”.
Despite
this, Bishop
Joseph and his fellow clergy decided to appear before this flawed
Commission to clearly set out the problems facing the Tamil people –
which is more than what their members of Parliament did.
LLRC: Submission by the
Catholic Diocese of Mannar
Rt. Rev. Dr. Rayappu Joseph, Rev.Fr.
Victor Sosai, Rev. Fr. Xavier Croos3
It
is a
crucially important Submission which set
out in detail what the people in the North and East were going
through behind the closed and censored doors of Sri Lanka. What was
more, they made constructive suggestions as to what needed to be
done.
The Submission opened
with:
“At the outset, we
must express our disappointment that previous Commissions of Inquiry
have failed to establish the truth into human rights violations and
extrajudicial killings they were inquiring, and bring justice and
relief to victims and their families.”
Driving the point home,
it went on:
“In order to achieve
genuine and lasting reconciliation, we believe it is crucial to
address the roots of the conflict and war, primarily issues affecting
Tamils such as recognition of their political reality, language,
land, education and political power sharing.”
This is the only document
ever published that gives the actual number of people who are
unaccounted for after the war -a staggering 146,679.
(This figure of 146,679
missing people was later taken up by the CID, the Criminal
Investigation Department of the Sri Lankan Police, in a clear attempt
to intimidate the Bishop and his clergy).
2.
Contacting the US State Department officials visiting Sri Lanka
In February 2012, the US
State Department sent two officials to Sri Lanka to inform the
Rajapaksa government that the US intended to submit a Resolution on
Sri Lanka at the upcoming 19th Session of the UN HRC (27
February – 23 March 2012).
19 Tamils,
non-politicians, (“Civil Society”), including Bishop
Rayappu Joseph, immediately sent a letter to them (10 February 2012).
It is a concise and precise letter written by people with a genuine
concern for the Tamil people, and the expectations (and
responsibilities) of the UN Human Rights Council.
It started with:
“In the context of the
forthcoming sessions of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, we,
members of the Tamil civil society in Sri Lanka, write this letter
seeking to bring to your notice our expectations of the Geneva
sessions.
- With deep regret we take note of the fact that the report of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry on Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation (LLRC) has become the point of reference in the discussions on Sri Lanka in Geneva. We wish to emphasise that it is important to give pre-eminent status and importance to the UN Secretary General’s Expert Panel Report on Sri Lanka in the discussions and particularly to highlight the unbridgeable gaps between the LLRC report and the UNSG’s Expert Panel’s report.
It ended with:
We urge that it
is imperative that the International Community that meets in Geneva
this March for the UN Human Rights Council sessions takes a firm
stance on accountability…. we urge the ‘international community
to acknowledge the consistent failure of domestic accountability
mechanisms in Sri Lanka and take steps to establish an international
mechanism for accountability’.
Any resolution
coming out of the Human Rights Council, which gives more time to the
Government of Sri Lanka, will have a devastating impact on the Tamil
community. The Government’s current activities in the North and
East are challenging the very existence of the Tamil people and more
time to the GOSL to implement the LLRC’s recommendations will only
mean further time for the Government to play havoc in the North and
East and subjugate the interests and aspirations of the Tamil people.
If the
International Community does not act now, like they did not act in
May 2009, the Tamils will cease to exist as a ‘people’ in this
country.”
3. UN HRC Submission
On 1st March
2012, 31 Christian clergy in North Sri Lanka headed by Bishop Rayappu
Joseph, made a direct Submission to the 19th Session of
the UN HRC:-
UN Human Rights Council sessions
and resolution on Sri Lanka
We are writing to you as a group of
concerned Christian clergy in North Sri Lanka who have been directly
affected by war and have been working to ensure rights of people in
our region before, during and after the war, while being concerned
and committed to broader issues of human rights, democratization and
rule of law in Sri Lanka. We have also been trying to monitor
domestic and international developments in this regard and contribute
constructively to such processes.
…. we welcome that the UNHRC
members appear to be taking some action towards protection of human
rights in Sri Lanka, even though this comes a bit too late, after
massive loss of life and sufferings. At least now, we urge the
Council to act decisively in relation to Sri Lanka, to enable Sri
Lankans to move towards genuine reconciliation.
Given the consistent denial of the
Sri Lankan government about scale and nature of war time abuses as
well as pre-war and post-war concerns, refusal to address these, and
given also the seriousness of the allegations levelled against it as
one of the parties to such abuses, we believe it is an independent
international body that could best address concerns of truth seeking,
accountability and reparations for victims in a way that victims,
survivors and their families will have confidence. It is only by
addressing these that we believe we can move towards genuine
reconciliation.
The record of various domestic
bodies whose recommendations successive governments have ignored,
including the LLRC’s own interim recommendations issued more than a
year ago, and threats and intimidation of witnesses who gave
testimony to the LLRC including a Christian Priest, had made us lose
confidence that our concerns will be addressed through LLRC.
Thus, we believe it is imperative
that the UNHRC calls on the Government to:
1. Implement LLRC recommendations,
2. Present a time bound, detailed
and specific action plan in this regard to the 20th session of the
UNHRC,
3. Report back on progress made on
implementation to the 22nd session of the UNHRC, and
4. Accept the appointment of and
fully cooperate with an international independent and effective
mechanism to monitor above and address accountability issues not
dealt with by the LLRC.
4. UNHRC – Response
of Civil Society
Members of ‘Civil
Society’, which included Bishop Joseph, responded immediately –
“Response by Civil
Society” (29 February, 2012). This is so important that it has
been reproduced in full in Appendix 2 in my earlier publication on
the threats to Bishop Joseph. Here are the opening paragraphs :-
“This
document is a response to the statement made by Minister Samarasinghe
at the High Level Segment of the 19th Session of the United Nations
Human Rights Council (UNHRC).
At
the outset it is noted that the responses by the Government including
setting up the Lesson’s Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC)
and the pledges made in the speech referenced here are as a result of
increased international scrutiny and a counter to the growing call
for a resolution to discuss Sri Lanka at the UNHRC. As civil society
who work on human rights and rule of law issues in Sri Lanka, the
pledges made are yet another indicator of the delaying tactics used
by the Government to halt any genuine progress in Sri Lanka.
……….,
this document highlights areas of contention and counters some of the
statements made by him. The table below contains two columns-one with
highlights from the statements made by the Minister and the opposing
column directly rebutting the specific claim and at times containing
questions that should be posed by different actors to the Government
of Sri Lanka.
This
document is…. drafted at a time when civil society and others who
are critical of the Government have come under intense threats,
resulting in no names being mentioned of those who drafted this
document. The shrinking space for any action in Sri Lanka
demonstrates the urgent and immediate need for action at the 19th
Sessions of the UNHRC.”
The
‘table’ referred to is a point by point response to the absolute
untruths of the Sri Lankan government. I know of no better response
to the downright lies of the GoSL. It clearly documents the reality
of life in the Tamil areas, rather than the fiction propagated by the
GoSL.
This
too, is reproduced in full in my earlier publication.
The
threats
JHU
– the political party of Buddhist monks
An
open threat came from the party of the Buddhist monks – Jathika
Hela Urumaya (JHU), a Government coalition partner, that accused
Bishop Joseph of aspiring to become the Cardinal of Tamil Eelam
(Independent Tamil State), and that he should be arrested and
prosecuted.
In
a press release, JHU said4
that
“Rev
Rayappu Joseph, the Bishop of Mannar, who requests the United Nations
Organization that an investigation should be launched regarding the
supposed war crimes allegations against Sri Lanka, should be
immediately produced before court, as it is a violation of the
constitution of this country.
Minister Mervyn Silva
Mervyn Silva, President
Rajapaksa’s Minister of Public Relations and Public Affairs, is a
very violent person, operating with his ‘private army’ of goons
and gangsters.
At a public meeting on 23
March 2012, in Kiribathgoda, a suburb of Colombo, Minister Silva said
the he will “break the bones” of those who supported the
US Memorandum on Sri Lanka. He added that he would do it himself,
boasting that he had done it before to (Sinhalese) journalists.
In
what is clearly a death threat, Minister Silva said that past kings
would execute those acting against the country, and that, “The
time has come now to do what the kings did then”.
Minister
Silva, who functions with a band of armed hooligans, murderers and
underworld characters, not only threatens but carries out his
threats. As such, his threat cannot be taken lightly.
I do not know whether
Bishop Joseph, his clergy and members of ‘Civil Society’ in the
North are within the reach of Minister Silva and his goons. However,
if they come to Colombo, even if invited to do so, and Mervyn Silva
and his goons know about it, they will most certainly be at risk.
A Government Minister
in Parliament
In early May, 2012, a
Cabinet Minister in Rajapaksa’s government, Rishad Bathiudeen,
Minister of Industry and Commerce, a Muslim, criticised Bishop
Joseph, accusing him of ‘anti-Muslim activity’ in the Sannar area
of Mannar District. The Minister is the leader of the All Ceylon
Muslim Congress (ACMC) which is a constituent member of President
Rajapaksa’s United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government.
Shockingly, the Tamil
National Alliance (TNA), the elected representatives of the Tamil
people in Parliament, did not demand that the Minister tables the
necessary evidence to document what he said, or unconditionally
withdraws what he said and apologises to the Bishop for what, in the
absence of such evidence, is defamation.
The Government reaction
To date, there has been
no condemnation by President Rajapaksa or by any member of his
government, of these outrageous threats by Ministers in the
Government to step outside the law, even into criminality. Nor has
there been any request to Minister Bathiudeen for evidence to support
his defamatory claims.
Action taken against Bishop
Rayappu Joseph and his clergy
Criminal Investigation
Officers ‘visit’ Bishop Joseph
On 8 May 2012, two CID
officers came to Mannar to ‘interview’ Bishop Joseph. I gather
they were both Muslims, not that it mattered – except that the
Cabinet Minister who slandered Bishop Joseph is also a Muslim. One
does not need to be a genius to work out who was instrumental in
sending the CID to ‘see’ Bishop Joseph.
They questioned him on
his Submission to the LLRC regarding the ‘disappearance’ of
146,679 people during the last stages of the war in the period
2008-2009. Bishop Joseph told the police officers that he had
submitted to the LLRC whatever documents he had in his possession.
Incredibly, the police officers said that they had no access to the
LLRC documents. Consider this; here were two police offices from
Police headquarters in Colombo, who could not access the LLRC
documents which I, a layman, can do from Australia!
They asked the Bishop if
he personally knew any of the missing persons. The Bishop said that a
Priest was among the missing, but that his concern was for all those
who were missing.
The Bishop rightly
wondered why the Police had to question him when the information they
sought was available with the Government Agents, Divisional
Secretaries and the ‘Grama Niladaris’ (local government village
community leaders), in the Tamil provinces, who would have the
population figures for the area (Vanni) before and after the war.
This is from where he got the figures to make the claims he did.
Several Catholic priests
were with the Bishop during the questioning. The Police officers who
questioned the Bishop, got his signature and stamp. They also took
the names and addresses of all those of all those present, and left.
This is clearly
intimidation. It is despite the direction of the High Commissioner
for Human Rights, Navanethem Pillay, stating on 23 March 2012, at the
close of the 19th Session of the UN HRC, that there must
be no reprisals against Sri Lanka’s human rights defenders after
the adoption of the Resolution.
Protest in the Mannar
area.
Sections
of the Catholic clergy and laity in Mannar vehemently objected to the
speech in Parliament by Cabinet Minister Rishad Bathiudeen, and
planned to organize a public solidarity event on Sunday 27 May 2012,
in the premises of St Sebastian Church, Mannar, to express solidarity
and support for Bishop Rayappu Joseph.
It
was to express appreciation for the Bishop’s role for many years as
a “voice for voiceless” victims of war, especially the Tamils,
express concern and call to ensure his physical safety and condemn
false and malicious allegations made against him both in Parliament
and the Government-controlled media .
Invitation
to the public to attend
Fr.
Jeyabalan Croos, St Anne’s Church, Vankalai, Mannar, issued an
“Invitation” to the public to attend the 27th
May event in St Sebastian’s Church.
The
‘Invitation’ set out the background for the meeting:
“Since the beginning of 2012,
there has been lot of adverse comments about the Bishop by some
Government Ministers, media owned, controlled and sympathetic to the
Government.
False accusations were made that
the Bishop of Mannar aspires to be the Cardinal of “Tamil Eelam”,
that he is involved in a conspiracy against the government supported
by the INGOs and that he is disturbing Muslim – Tamil harmony.
Government Ministers claimed that he
should be arrested and prosecuted over a letter he wrote to the
President and members of the UN Human Rights Council (together with
30 other Tamil Catholic Clergy from the North), later endorsed by 63
more including a Retired Sinhalese Anglican Bishop, Catholic and
other Christian Clergy and lay people, men and women, non Christians,
both Tamils and Sinhalese.
More than 16 months after a detailed
submission to the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (LLRC), he was
questioned by the Criminal Investigation Department recently. The
Bishop was also part of a group of Tamil activists who engaged with
the Tamil National Alliance on issues that they considered being
critical to Tamil people.
The most recent attacks on the
Bishop arose due to his public support for decisive action by the
member states of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva with regard to
reconciliation and accountability in Sri Lanka. The Bishop supported
calls for implementation of the LLRC recommendations and presentation
of a plan of action regarding the same and an independent and
international commission of inquiry to look into matters not
addressed by the LLRC such as accountability.
Through above and various other
public and private interventions, the Bishop had called for
recognition of the Tamil nationhood and a political solution to the
ethnic conflict, a process of truth telling about abuses that had
happened in the last stages of the war and throughout the conflict,
return of land forcibly and illegally occupied by the military to
people, support for the return of Northern Muslims evicted from the
North in 1990 by the LTTE on a level equal to support extended to
Tamils, concerns about those killed, disappeared and injured during
the war, those detained for long periods and several post-war
concerns such as militarization, cultural domination of Tamil area,
attacks on journalists and human rights defenders in the south
including the killing of a Sinhalese fishermen during a protest
against fuel price hikes.
His submission to the LLRC included
a question about the fate of 146,679 people that appear to be
unaccounted for in the Vanni in the last 8 months of the war, based
on Government statistics and relevant documentary evidence from
Government sources, was submitted to the LLRC along with the
submission.
On no occasion had the Bishop called
for a separate country or renewed armed struggle and have rejected
both these as not being viable options to be considered in the
struggle for dignity and justice of Tamil people and broader
reconciliation in Sri Lanka. The Bishop had cooperated and engaged
with national and local level government officials, including the
President, Ministers, the Secretary to the Ministry of Defense,
Government Agents, Military officials and Police. He readily agreed
to the request for questioning by the CID, and was instrumental in
taking the initiative in inviting the LLRC to conduct hearings in
Mannar. He had also cooperated and engaged with the international
community, especially inter-governmental bodies, experts and staff of
the United Nations, of which Sri Lanka is a member.
Therefore, we most cordially invite
you to participate in the above event to express your solidarity to
the Bishop of Mannar who in the spirit of the Prophets of the Bible
and following the footsteps of our Great Master Jesus Christ act as
the “voice of the voiceless” people of Mannar and in the whole of
North and East and also in the whole island of Sri Lanka. We would be
very grateful to you, in case you may not be able to be present, to
delegate someone to participate in the great event”.
Police
charge the Catholic clergy
Before
the planned event occurred, the Mannar police intervened and sought a
Court order prohibiting the demonstration and the meeting. It was
admitted by the Police that they were acting on instructions of the
Cabinet Minister concerned.
The
Police filed a case against five priests, saying that they are
organizing a Protest March which would disturb traffic along a main
road, might burn effigies of ministers and would cause tension and
disharmony between the Catholics and Muslims living in Mannar.
It
was clearly an attempt to intimidate organizers and participants of
the planned public event.
The
five Catholic priests were summoned by the Police to appear in the
Mannar District Court on 26 May 2012.
In
the courts, it was stated by the lawyers of the defendants that no
such protest march was planned by the said priests. They and other
Priests had announced in their Churches that a Prayer Session would
be held inside the Church premises of St. Sebastian’s Church,
Mannar, after which a Resolution of Protest would be made against a
particular minister who had spoken in the parliament defaming Bishop
Joseph.
The
verdict was given by the District Judge Hon. A. Judeson that the
Court had no authority to stop a religious prayer session to be held
inside the Church compound and also any meeting afterwards done in a
peaceful manner. However, the court prevented public marches along
the streets.
The 27th
May 2012 event in St Sebastian’s Church.
More
than 5,000 people from Christian, Hindu and Islam faiths, braving the
heavy military and police presence in Mannar, came for the meeting. A
Resolution in defence of Bishop Rayappu Joseph was passed.
A
senior Muslim journalist who participated and spoke in support of
Bishop Joseph was assaulted by a prominent supporter of Minister
Bathiudeen. The journalist had to be hospitalized because of the
injuries sustained in the assault.
This
is the current situation in the Tamil North and East. Not even a
Prayer session, or a peaceful meeting even in a Church premise can be
held without Police intervention, being dragged to Court and even
being subjected to assault by goons who support the Government.
As
Fr Jeyabalan Croos pointed out in his ‘Invitation’,
“Further
threats, intimidations or the physical prevention or disruption of
this legitimate and peaceful event cannot be ruled out”.
It is a serious violation of the
Freedom of Assembly, guaranteed in the Sri Lankan Constitution which
I will refer to.
The Tamil National
Alliance (TNA)
The TNA are the elected
representatives of the Tamil people in the North and East. It is of
interest to look at the stance and actions taken by the TNA when
their clergy were hauled before a Court in Mannar and charged by the
Police on a patently absurd charge. After all, the Leader of the TNA,
R.Sampanthan, is a lawyer. The TNA nominated MP, M.A. Sumanthiran,
who seems to be travelling salesman for the TNA, is a lawyer. I would
have expected them to be at the forefront in the defence of the five
priests. Let alone be at the forefront, they was nowhere to be seen!
“Missing in action”.
With
more than 5,000 people who attended the 27th
May, 2012 event in St Sebastian’s Church, Mannar, to express
support and solidarity with Bishop Rayappu Joseph, one would have
expected the TNA leadership to have been there. There is no evidence
that they were. Again they were “Missing in Action”.
So
was the situation in Geneva at the 19th
Session of the UN HRC meeting when action on Sri Lanka was being
taken up. One would have expected them to be very much there,
apprising the delegates of the plight of the Tamil people in the
North and East and the disastrous humanitarian situation which
demanded immediate international action. The TNA was (again) “Missing
in Action”.
Escaped to Norway
I have had a number of
emails to check on the credibility of a story in circulation that
Bishop Rayappu Joseph had ‘escaped’ to Norway, and that the Sri
Lankan government had ‘assisted him’ in this.
I am well aware that this
is untrue and that Bishop Joseph is in Mannar. However, I am
concerned about these stories given what has happened in the past.
I refer to the fate of
another Roman Catholic priest in Mannar, Fr Mary Bastian. He was
abducted on January 5th, 1985, by the Armed Forces,
tortured and murdered. The body was clandestinely burnt. Several
witnesses saw the Priest being taken away by soldiers. Pope John Paul
had a special prayer for the departed soul of Fr Bastian.
Lalith Athulathmudali,
the then President J.R. Jayawardene’s Minister of National Security
(or rather, ‘Insecurity’), in typical Goebellian style,
completely denied that the murder had occurred, adding insult to
injury by tarnishing the dead priest’s reputation. He claimed that
Fr Bastian had escaped to India and was very much alive in Tamil
Nadu.
Many Sinhalese Catholic
priests in the South collaborated in this cover up. The most serious
collaborator was Rev Oswald Gomis, later appointed the Roman Catholic
Archbishop of Colombo. Rev Gomis, the government propagandist, with
the tacit consent of the then Archbishop of Colombo, Nicholas Marcus
Fernando, wrote to the Vatican that Fr Bastian was alive and well in
India.
The Pope retracted his
earlier statement – something that is unknown. The Vatican said
that the Pope had erred in praying for Fr Bastian’s departed soul
and that “joyfully” he was alive.
Despite overwhelming
evidence that the priest was dead, Catholics did not push the issue,
since it would have eroded the Pope’s credibility even further.
With the Pope’s infallibility already dented, the faithful decided
to let it pass. The Pope’s infallibility was undermined by Roman
Catholic priests in the Sinhalese South cooperating with the
Government - and lying.
History has a habit of
repeating itself. I hope that the claimed ‘escape’ of Bishop
Joseph to Norway’ is not going to be a repetition of the ‘escape’
of Fr Bastian to India. There is a worrying possibility that Bishop
Joseph will ‘escape’ in a ‘white van’, never to be seen
again. The GoSL is likely to ‘assist’ in such an ‘escape’,
indeed organise and conduct it.
Violation of the Sri Lankan
Constitution
What President Rajapaksa and his
government have done to the Catholic priests in Mannar is a violation
of Constitution.
Chapter 3 Fundamental Rights
Freedom of Speech, assembly,
association, movement etc
Section 14.
Every citizen is entitled to -
(a) the freedom of speech and expression including publication;
(b) the freedom of peaceful assembly;
(c) the freedom of association;
(e) the freedom, either by himself or in
association with others, and either in public or in private, to
manifest his religion or belief in worship, observance,
practice or teaching.
The
Mannar Police trying to stop the event (meeting) on 27th
May 2012 in St Sebastian’s Church, Mannar, is a violation of
Chapter 3, Section 14 (a),(b),(c) and (e). It was a peaceful assembly
that was to take place, it was by a group who were being prevented
from ‘association’, it was a ‘Prayer meeting’ which was a
‘belief in worship’.
This is a matter which
will have to be legally challenged. The problem, of course, is that
the Judicial system in Sri Lanka is under the heel of President
Rajapaksa, and the ‘Rule of Law’ does not apply, nor do
‘Violations of the Constitution’.
Such are the problems in
Sri Lanka under an absolute ruler, President Mahinda Rajapaksa. with
sweeping powers and no accountability or responsibility even to
Parliament, The Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, as it is
called, is neither ‘Democratic’ nor ‘Socialist’ but a Fascist
dictatorship, or blacker still, a Totalitarian tyranny under the
absolute rule of a despot.
All that can be done is
that the International community, including the Pope, should be kept
informed of what goes on behind the closed and censored doors of Sri
Lanka. Should you wish to register your protest, here are the Sri
Lankan authorities and those in the Vatican:
President Mahindha Rajapaksa
"Temple Trees"
150 Galle Road
Colombo 3,
Sri Lanka
email secretary@presidentsoffice.lk
His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVIPP.
Bishop of Rome
Apostolic Palace
Via del Pellegrino
Citta del Vaticano
Vatcan City State, 00120
Europe
Phone:011.3906.6988.10.22
email: av@pccs.va
fax: 011.3906.6988.53.73
His Eminence Cardinal Tarciso Bertone
Secretary of State of the Holy See
(address the same as for the pope)
Note. The Secretary of State is effectively the Prime Minister.
He deals with most Foreign Affairs matters
William Joseph Cardinal Levada
Prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and Pontifical Commission
"Ecclesia Dei"
[Secretary: Luis Francisco Ladaria Ferrer, S.J.]
[Secretary of the Pontifical Commission "Ecclesia Dei" the Rev.Msgr.Guido Pozzo]
Pizza del S.Uffizio 11
00193 Rome Italy
Europe
Phone: 011.3906.69.88.33.57
Phone: 011.3906.69.88.34.13
fax:011.3906.69.88.34.09
email: cdf@cfaith.va
and www.vatcan.va/roman curia/congregations/cfaith
Prefect
ApostolicPenitentiary
Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura
Piazza della Cancelleria 1
00186,Rome,Italy
Europe
Phone: 011.3906.69.88.75.26
Phone: 011.3906.69.88.75.21
email: civcsva.pref@ccscrlife.va
Minister Rishad Bathiudeen
Minister of Industry and Commerce
73/1 Galle Rd
Colombo 3
Sri Lanka
phone 011 2435248
fax 011 2390885
email minister@industry.gov.lk
Brian Senewiratne
MA(Cantab),
MD (Lond), FRCP (Lond), FRACP
Consultant
Physician
Brisbane,
Australia 4122
tel +61 7 44496118
mob +61 419335334
2
www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/ASA37/008/2011/en
3
Rt Rev Dr
Rayappu Joseph, the Catholic Bishop of Mannar, Very
Rev Fr Victor Sosai, the Vicar General of the Mannar Diocese, and
Rev Fr Xavier Croos, the Representative of the Priest’s Form of
Mannar)
4
http://www.srilankabrief.org/2012/03/should-summon-bishop-of-mannar-to.html
