CANADIAN PRIME Minister Stephen Harper yesterday apologised to families of the victims who perished in the 1985 Air India bombing. But for many of those still grieving their loved ones 25 years after the tragedy, it was too little too late.
“This was evil. Perpetrated by cowards. Despicable. Senseless. And vicious,” said Mr Harper. His address in Ottawa, the Canadian capital, acknowledged the serious security lapses that had permitted the act of terrorism and the government’s “scant respect” for the families of victims who have since struggled to achieve justice.
“After so long, they wake up and realise the mistakes they made,” said Pramila Sahu, from Montreal, who lost her husband and her two teenage children in the worst act of terrorism in the country’s history. “For me, it doesn’t ease my pain. Twenty-five years on, I’m still suffering. My life has gone.”
The bomb, planted on a flight from Montreal to London, exploded 180 miles southwest of Ireland. Sikh extremists were blamed for the act, thought to have been carried out in retaliation for the Indian government’s June 1984 attack on the Golden Temple in Amritsar, India. A separate luggage bomb destined for a second Air India flight killed two Japanese baggage handlers at Tokyo’s Narita airport.
Mr Harper’s apology followed last week’s release of a hard-hitting official report into institutional failures. The report, which concludes a four-year inquiry, criticised security services for failing to heed warning signs of the attack months before it occurred.
Mr Harper cited the authorities’ “dysfunctional focus on self-justification” in the aftermath of the attack. “This atrocity was conceived in Canada, executed in Canada by Canadian citizens and its victims were themselves mostly citizens of Canada,” he said. “We wish this realisation had gained common acceptance earlier.”
The apology is expected to lead to compensation payments for the families of victims. The Canadian government has already paid more than CA$20 million (€15.6 million) in out-of-court settlements.
Victims’ relatives and dignitaries gathered yesterday at a memorial garden on the Sheep’s Head peninsula in west Cork. Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin said the “tragic events had forged unbreakable bonds between the peoples of three continents”. Ms Sahu, whose husband and children had been travelling to visit relatives in Bihar, India, went to Ireland after the tragedy to identify the bodies.
The apology triggered anger among some surviving family members in India. “It confirms what the families suspected while asking for the inquiry that it was not a sheer accident,” said Bal Gupta, whose wife was killed in the bombing.
“I applaud John Major for giving us the truth,” said Amarjit Bhinder, whose husband was the co-pilot of the aircraft, referring to former Canadian chief justice who headed the inquiry. “All these 25 years I have been waiting for justice I still have not got it,” she said.