The Sinhalese Archbishop of Colombo, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, has said that the Catholic Church in Sri Lanka does not support the allegations made by Tamil bishops to US officials last week.
Speaking to The Island, Cardinal Ranjith said that the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Sri Lanka would not endorse the claims made by Bishop of Mannar Rayappu Joseph and the Bishop of Jaffna Thomas Soundranayagam, saying those were the personal opinions of the Tamil bishops.
The bishops had told US Ambassador-at-large for War Crimes Stephen Rapp that Sri Lanka had used chemical weapons and cluster bombs in their onslaught on Tamils during the last phase of the war and the continuing structural genocide.
Catholic bishops want international probe into chemical weapon use (10 Jan 2014)