SAHGF Statement on the Easter Weekend Attacks in Sri Lanka

Following on the recent attacks in Wellington and Pittsburgh against religious communities, it is with a sense of deep shock that the board and staff of the South African Holocaust & Genocide Foundation (SAHGF), representing the Holocaust & Genocide Centres in Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg, notes the terrible Easter weekend attacks on innocent civilians including many Christian worshippers in Sri Lanka. We extend our condolences to the families and community of the victims of the senseless acts of hate which led to the murder and injury of members of congregations attending prayers, and those who were injured and lost their lives in hotels. All congregations no matter their faith should be able to worship in safety.

The SAHGF is dedicated to helping to transform society so that, in the words of the Foundation’s Patron, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, speaking at the opening of the Holocaust centre in Cape Town in 1999, “we can become more human, more gentle, more caring, more compassionate, valuing every person as being of infinite worth, so precious that we know such atrocities will never happen again and that the world will be a more humane place.”