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Sri Lanka is now tracking those responsible for the wave of attacks that killed 290 people on Sunday (April 21st). Attacks on churches and hotels have still not been claimed, but the authorities blame the violence on a local Islamist movement. 24 people were arrested, the state of emergency declared Monday night, and Tuesday will be the day of national mourning. But one question agitates the minds: was there negligence on the part of the Sri Lankan government?
According to several members of the government, the police had received reports, but the information was not properly processed.
The Minister of Defense, Hemasiri Fernando, finally admitted half-heartedly on Monday morning that warnings of possible attacks on churches had reached the police's ears about ten days ago, but he According to him, he was acting on " information that was too vague " to anticipate anything.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe later admitted a " security services loophole ". The information should have gone back to his office and it was not done.
At the end of a meeting, the Minister of Telecommunications, Harin Fernando, even published on Twitter internal documents, dated at the beginning of the month, on which we read that a group of Islamist militants, part of a movement local radical, was preparing for suicide missions aimed at churches.
According to the head of the national police, this information would have fallen on the eve of the big harvest holidays in Sri Lanka. And to conclude that they may have been neglected by agents too eager to leave.
Moreover, since the major political crisis of last autumn, the President and the Prime Minister are in very bad terms, which may well have divided administrative and security services, according to partisan lines.
The investigation continues
Despite the polemics that swell, time is stalking. The FBI and Interpol travel to Sri Lanka on Monday and Tuesday to help authorities shed light on who the murderers are, and who orders them.
The Islamist group today accused by the government spokesperson is called National Thowheeth Jama'ath (NTJ), a conservative organization already involved in hate speech, against Buddhists in this case. . An organization however too small to have acted alone, according to the government and several observers, who wonder about the possibility that they have been helped by other international terrorist organizations.
According to the Vice-President of the Muslim Council of Sri Lanka interviewed by Bloomberg , all within the National Thowheeth Jama'ath are not jihadists, but their radical thinking, advocating among other things the killing of anyone of non-Muslim faith, has many circulated on social networks. Hilmy Ahamed, claims to have given the police three years ago the names of the dangerous members of this group. He accuses them today of ignoring this information.
The controversy risks weakening a little more a government already very divided since the political crisis of last autumn. Confronted with the worst carnage since the end of the civil war, the challenge facing the Sri Lankan executive is significant in this multi - ethnic and multi-faith country where national cohesion is fragile.