An unanswered prayer

By Lakna Paranamanna
When I met Rizana Nafeek’s parents in June 2011, they had decided to leave the safe return of their daughter, in the hands of God. A few days later after my meeting with them, rumours of the possible execution of this young girl began circulating. However, they were vehemently rejected by the Sri Lankan authorities, who claimed that they were working hard together with the Saudi Arabian authorities to ensure her release.

Similar rumours circulated from time to time and each time, the government gave reassurances that led us to think otherwise.  The most recent of the events took place a few days ago, when the Saudi Arabian Ambassador in Sri Lanka, Abdulaziz bin Abdulrahman Al Jammaz allegedly stated that he had received information to believe, Rizana Nafeek would be pardoned and could return to the island, due to the request made to the Saudi King Abdullah Bin Abdul Azeez by the Sri Lankan President.
However, instead of returning home to meet her grieving family that had not seen her face for the past eight years, shackled and clad in white robes, this young girl was beheaded yesterday morning  in the middle of a town-centre, in a foreign land where she had no one to call her own. The hype created on the possible pardon stands to be nothing but vain words now, when the reality stares us in the face –even after eight long years, the Lankan government failed to embark on the right course of action to secure the release of this girl. 

It has been a fact well reflected from the start, that Sri Lankan authorities failed to act promptly and in understanding of the grave situation that befell this girl. From the point she was arrested, experts on several accounts repeatedly pointed out the flaws in the manner in which the Sri Lankan government responded, the most serious allegation among them being failing to provide immediate legal support, which she was entitled to. In fact, those who have been following the case of Rizana Nafeek would know that the Sri Lankan government only found their senses to step in and intervene in the issue after several international organizations including the Asian Human Rights Watch, began rallying for her release. When it was discovered that the alleged crime of murdering the infant, had been committed when she was only 17, sufficient cause was generated to strengthen the rally for her release.  In this light, serious doubts should be cast on the diplomatic efforts of Sri Lankan envoys sent to beseech a reconsideration of the execution, for a crime committed when she was under-aged.

She left home in the hope of bringing better times to her family. But the little mud hut, which was her home, still stands unchanged today, and her family still languishing in the depths of poverty. The fact remains dubious, whether the Sri Lankan authorities genuinely believed this girl would be pardoned and sent home or whether the rumours that were circulated were just another pathetic ‘act’ to rid themselves of the blame that would follow. But one thing is for certain, it was an act of cruelty to have given, those parents who were being crushed by poverty and struggling with the guilt of having inadvertently sent their eldest daughter to her death,   such high hopes just to shatter their world merely days later. After all, bad news slows us down for awhile and then we move on, but hope . . . its paralyzing. How this family will recover from a tragedy of this magnitude is questionable? Furthermore what lessons will be learned by the diplomatic establishment of this country and will we ever be free of the haunting guilt that an innocent 17 year old met her end due to inefficient bureaucracy?

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What difference will this make?