‘I THOUGHT I WAS GOING TO DIE’
As Sri Lanka grieves in the wake of the Easter Sunday terror, an Australian survivor tells WHO her story
An Australian who survived the Sri Lanka terrorist bombings reveals her experience
White streamers fluttered, like doves in flight, along the streets, highways and buildings of Colombo on April 23, as Sri Lanka marked a national day of mourning following the terrorist attacks on April 21 that killed 253 people and wounded 500. The remembrance was stained with deepest grief for the many burying loved ones that day. Among them, Australian Sudesh Kolonne, who clapped his hand to his mouth and sobbed as he buried his wife, Manik Suriyaaratchi and daughter Alexendria, 10, at a cemetery near the village where his wife had been raised.
Manik, a 45-year-old entrepreneur, and Alexendria were the only Australian fatalities of the coordinated attacks, in which eight suicide bombers struck three luxury hotels and three churches packed with worshippers celebrating Easter Sunday services. IS claimed responsibility for the killings police suspect were carried out by two local extremist groups, including the
Islamist National Thowheeth Jamaath (NTJ) group, possibly in retaliation for the March 15 Christchurch mosque shootings. On April 25, Prime Minister Scott Morrison confirmed reports one of the suicide bombers had lived in Australia before his departure in 2013. “That individual had been here on a student and a graduate skilled visa,” he said. “They had a spouse and child visa at that time as well, but they had not returned to the country.”
Questions linger about the terrorists and their international affiliations, but what’s certain is that the death toll could have been higher, as one bomber’s plan to target the Taj Samudra hotel was foiled when the device in his backpack failed to detonate. The alleged ringleader of the plot was Mohamed Hashim Mohamed Zahran, who recruited fellow suicide bombers including Ahmed Ibrahim, 33, and his younger brother, Ilham, 31 – sons of a wealthy spice merchant who is now under investigation – along with 70 others, with a further 70 still at large. When police stormed Ilham’s home in an upmarket suburb, hours after the attacks, his pregnant wife set off explosives that reportedly killed herself, their three children and three police officers.
The bloodshed continued on April 26, as police raided locations east of Colombo associated with Zahran: at a hideout in Kalmunai, suicide bombers fired at police and set off bombs that killed 15 people, including three women and six children. (Zahran’s wife and child reportedly survived with critical injuries.) Another operation in nearby Sammanthurai uncovered IS propaganda and a vast horde of bombmaking material. Meanwhile, the Catholic Church in Sri Lanka took the unprecedented step of closing all churches a week after the attacks. “This is a time our hearts are tested by the great destruction that took place last Sunday,” said Archbishop of Colombo Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith at a service at his home televised across the country.
As security is tightened and authorities delve for answers, victims’ loved ones are left to pick up the pieces of shattered lives. On the eve of her death, little Alexendria Kolonne was alight with joy, wearing a yellow dress and flowers in her hair, as she played the guitar and sang for her family in preparation for Mass the next day at St Sebastian’s Church. “These two were so excited on Sunday to go to church for the ceremony,” Sudesh Kolonne, 46, an educational consultant who lives between Sri Lanka and Melbourne, told CNN of his wife of 14 years and their daughter.
Waiting outside for his family, Kolonne, a Buddhist, ran inside the church when he heard the explosion and searched for them for half an hour. “It was black and dust. I was praying and looking. Finally, I found my daughter,” he said. “My wife was trying to say something … Both died in front of me. Both died in my hands.”
Danish billionaire Anders Holch Povlsen is also dealing with unfathomable loss. The ASOS fashion tycoon was reportedly on holiday in Sri Lanka, staying at the Shangri-La Hotel with his wife, Anne, and family, when three of their children – Alma, Agnes and Alfred – were killed in the attacks. One daughter, Astrid, survived. Other victims include Sri Lankan celebrity chef Shantha Mayadunne and her daughter, Nilanga, who died minutes after posting a celebratory selfie taken over breakfast at the Shangri-La Hotel, and British lawyer Anita Nicholson, who died at the Shangri-La alongside her children Alex, 14, and Annabel, 11. “They shared with their mother the priceless ability to light up any room they entered and bring joy to the lives of all they came into contact with,” said bereaved husband and father Ben Nicholson.
As a mass burial took place near St Sebastian’s church on April 23, Sri Lanka’s President Maithripala Sirisena declared a state of emergency, while religious leaders pleaded for calm. “At the moment, our people are very sad and very emotional, and we have to maintain peace,” said Father Nishantha Cooray, who travelled from the city of Kandy to offer solace to a devastated people. “We go house to house, feel their sadness and tears. Being with them, we share their grief.”
In the wake of the atrocity, life-affirming
stories of courage light the way. Father-of-two Ramesh Raju, 40, lost his life after preventing a suicide bomber from entering the Zion church, filled with up to 450 people. “My husband sensed something was wrong,” said Chrishanthini Ramesh, explaining that Ramesh turned away the killer, who detonated the explosives outside. Others are sharing accounts of surviving the horror with fresh resolve to cherish life.
At the Cinnamon Grand Hotel, preparations for a wedding coloured the air with happiness before horror struck. The day after she’d arrived with her boyfriend, Patrick Ritchie, 32, Adelaide tourist Sophia HynesBishop, 28, had just finished breakfast in the Taprobane restaurant when the bomb exploded. “I just felt this wave of air and smell and it was just completely quiet, I didn’t hear anything at all, it was just silence,” HynesBishop, 28, tells WHO (see right for more of her harrowing story).
After staff helped her outside, HynesBishop was in shock, but safe. “I’m so lucky to be alive,” reflects Hynes-Bishop, who works in marketing at the RSPCA. “Spare a thought for the hundreds of people who will never go home … and their families who will never tell them how much they are truly loved ever again.”