Sri Lankan soldiers walk through the Cinnamon Grand Hotel lobby in Colombo.
The Cinnamon Grand hotel in Colombo was the scene of an attack that claimed the lives of 20 people, including five employees. It reopened its doors a few days ago with an important security device. But the tourists are not yet back.
At the Cinnamon Grand Hotel in Colombo, which has just reopened its doors to the public after a suicide bombing on Easter Sunday , the silence is not just the hushed silence of high-end establishments. It is above all the silence of the void.
With barely ten rooms out of 500, compared to nearly 300 normally at this time of year, the Cinnamon particularly feels the disaffection of travelers from Sri Lanka after the jihadist attacks that killed 257 people on April 21 .
Twenty people killed, including five employees
That day, around 9:10 a.m., the place was the scene of the last suicide bombing of the wave that targeted Christian churches in full mass and luxury hotels. A suicide bomber blew himself up at the breakfast buffet in one of his restaurants, killing 20 people including five employees.
To access Cinnamon’s vast marble-floored lobby, you must now pass two heavy security barriers. A newly installed X-ray scanner examines the bags. There are more armed soldiers than customers.
At the lobby bar, Chaminda Perera returns for the first time since the attacks claimed by the jihadist group Islamic State (IS) in this hotel where he has his habits, like part of the wealthy elite of the Sri Lankan capital.
“You feel very alone when you enter. The Cinnamon Grand is one of the best hotels in Colombo. People always come here, normally during the day it’s very difficult to get a seat, ” describes this director of an agrochemicals company, sipping glasses of red wine with a friend. Around, the benches and armchairs are all free. Bart van Dijk, a 29-year-old Dutchman who has lived in Colombo for two years, came as a neighbor to buy his coffee at the hotel’s bakery. Normally, he would also have brought his dirty laundry to wash.
“In other countries, a hotel is just a place where people sleep for work or while sightseeing. Here, you have 14 restaurants in this building, a laundry, a gym … You enter almost into an entire ecosystem, ” explains this manager of an online commerce portal.
“We will come back”
Signs invite customers to post their return to the hotel on social media with the hashtag #BackatCG .
“It was always so busy. The lobby saw people of all races and nationalities pass by. People who came for all kinds of reasons: for a wedding, for a dinner or just to be seen and have a cup of coffee, ” the manager of the establishment, Rohan Karr, told AFP.
“Now it’s …” he hesitates, searching for the appropriate word. Before recovering: “but we will come back! We will quickly regain our glory! ” .
Many countries are advising their nationals not to travel to Sri Lanka following the attacks, believing that the security situation has not yet stabilized. The government expects a 30% drop in tourists this year and estimates the sector could take up to two years to return to normal levels.
Following a modus operandi also applied by his accomplices who struck the neighboring Shangri-La and Kingsbury hotels, the suicide bomber had taken a room at Cinnamon the day before the attack. However, he did not sleep there, the telesurveillance images showing him leaving the establishment in the evening.
He did not return until the next morning, with a bag armed with a bomb. He then went to the restaurant for the first time, where he probably judged that there were not enough customers present yet. When he returned there a few minutes later, this time he set off his explosives.
If the Cinnamon has already reopened four of its restaurants, it has however still not recovered the keys to the one devastated by the explosion. The foreigners busy there now are travelers of a whole different category: Interpol and FBI investigators.
More Stories
Attacks in Sri Lanka. Police chief refuses to leave despite president’s injunction
Sri Lanka. 140 people wanted, a shooting in the east of the country
Sri Lanka. Wave of attacks in hotels and churches on Easter Day: more than 200 dead