I will make sure my brother and sister didn’t die in vain
● The brother of two young UK shul-goers murdered in the Sri Lanka terror attacks explains why he travelled to Colombo to battle for those who survived
ON HIS first, heartwrenching visit to Sri Lanka, David Linsey looks out wistfully towards a spot of tranquil sea just a stone’s throw from the Shangri La Hotel, where his 15-yearold sister Amelie and his 19-year-old brother Daniel were killed on April 21 this year.
Mr Linsey, 21, had been offered free accommodation at the hotel by its British-born manager but he politely declined. He chose a nearby hotel instead.
“I’m not really ready to go inside that hotel,” he says. Daniel and Amelie, who were members of Westminster Synagogue, were among 259 people murdered in the Easter Sunday terrorist bombings six months ago.
“My sister and brother’s lives are not defined by where it all happened. They are defined by the human beings they were,” says Mr Linsey.
He tries to avoid talking about the horrifying details of their deaths. Daniel and Amelie had been collecting some extra breakfast when a suicide bomber’s explosives ripped into them.
Their father Matthew, sitting nearby, was virtually unharmed. David had been at home in west London, preparing a university assignment. Twelve other people died in that breakfast room alone.
The hotel does not plan to place a plaque in the room once it has been refurbished in case it disturbs future tourists.
In any case, Mr Linsey is not keen on memorials. “In my mind, Amelie and Daniel will never die. Daniel was the most selfless person — he would never do anything purely for himself. Amelie was the glue that brought the entire family together.
“I want them to be remembered — at least through the name and work of the foundation I’ve set up.
“But I now have a new focus: not on death but on life. I really feel driven to unite everyone in our pain, and move forward — to channel our pain into a productive mission.
“There is no point in being caught in a cycle of violence, so that every attack leads to a retaliatory attack and things get worse and worse.
“At some point things have to change and to be part of that change is something very special.”
He has collected an astonishing £250,000 by creating the Amelie and Daniel Linsey Foundation — and asking for donations on the
Justgiving website and app. Now he is starting to put the money into helping victims of the attacks and their families. His most moving moment, he says, was coming face-to face with very young survivors. “We met children in Colombo affected by the bombings. What makes me emotional is seeing these families. It reinforced in me why I am doing this and why I’m here.
“My family in London is relatively so fortunate, with a house to live in, employment, and education for my [surviving] younger brother. But here in Sri Lanka, so many have lost their only breadwinner. And also communities that depend on tourism have lost everything.”
There are still many in need, Mr Linsey says, even though it’s nearly six months since Islamist suicide bombers attacked the three tourist hotels and three churches. Many have been left with horrific injuries — and deep psychological damage.
Asked how his visit to Sri Lanka has affected him personally, he says: “All this is absolutely reducing my pain — though I am not sure I will ever fully recover.”
Mr Linsey is determined not to let any of the money he has collected be squandered, so he is allocating it very carefully to specific private charities. One of them, Nest, which is treating the physical and psychological traumas that children and their parents have suffered, has been given £5,000 by Mr Linsey.
He was told that on the day of the atrocity, his siblings were rushed to hospital where there were chaotic scenes as the injured and dying were brought in.
He wants to help fix that, so a larger chunk of cash is going to improve the trauma system in Sri Lanka. “People are often well-trained on an individual level,” he says, “but they may not work together as a team, and the hospitals may not communicate with each other.” He met local trauma doctors in order to discuss the issue.
During his visit he also met the country’s president, Maithripala Sirisena, and the Catholic cardinal, Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith, who said he was deeply impressed with Mr Linsey’s projects. Two of the three churches bombed were Catholic. “I was very pleased when the Cardinal blessed me and blessed our mission,” says Mr Linsey.
You do not have to travel far to find the very people that Mr Linsey is trying to help. At the scene of the greatest carnage, a village church in Negombo about 20 miles up the coast, two large boards name all the 115 killed there. Visitors and worshippers huddle around a
large board bearing photographs taken minutes after the St Sebastian church was bombed. Some show people carrying bodies; other show weeping parents at their children’s coffins. Also displayed are photos of a ceremony attended by the island’s Catholic Cardinal three months later. By then, the church had been totally restored by army units, which still check all worshippers as they enter.
On the church floor at the exact spot where the suicide bomber detonated his explosive belt, a glass panel has been placed over the blast craters.
The local Catholic priests say a number of survivors, especially mothers who have lost their children, want to end their lives. But others say they have found meaning in a belief that they must have survived for a purpose, to show other people how even the worst pain cannot destroy the human spirit.
At St Sebastian Church there is an 11-year-old girl who had been rushed to hospital with two bits of shrapnel lodged in her brain. Though she now says very little, she is making daily improvements.
At a graveyard, her father points to scores of other victims, and the graves of four of his nieces and nephews.
Mr Linsey says he has paid little attention to religion in his formative years - but now he is finding some comfort in it. “You never really know where to turn in times like these. Both religions emphasise family and keeping family close to you. And depending on those bonds and whatever else there might be helps get you through this.”
He recalls: “My brother Daniel used to know more of the Jewish prayers than me. But being Jewish has helped me, especially at Westminster synagogue.”
For his next trip, Mr Linsey says he plans to meet the Chabad Rabbi Shneor Maidanchik, a dynamic Israeli, who, along with his wife Mushka, runs a synagogue and provides hospitality in Colombo.
The rabbi reveals that the Chabad centre was also a designated target for the terrorists. A few days before the killings, two men were seen on his security video approaching his front gate and examining how they might get in. The police took the recording as evidence.
Investigators also found a threat posted on the internet, says the rabbi, indicating an attack on a Jewish target may have been planned — similar to the one on a Chabad centre in Mumbai. “It’s a miracle that we had been building a wall around our totally undefended centre, and the security-coded front gate must have deterred them,” says Rabbi Shneor. “I would love David Linsey to spend a Shabbat with us.”
Flying home after his ten-day trip, exhausted but elated, Mr Linsey says this is only the start. “I do plan to keep coming back. I should probably sit my exams next year so I graduate [at Oxford University]. But after that I will — if this goes well enough — do this to the level that I can really grow this into something large, scalable and substantial. As for my personal healing, it’s important to make things as good as they can be. It may never be as good as before, but it’s important to try.”
So many people here have lost their only breadwinner’
He also met the president and the Catholic cardinal
To give to David Linsey’s charity, visit www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/ amelieanddaniel