Sri Lanka on Tuesday apologised for enforcing a “cremations only” policy during the Covid-19 pandemic, going against the religious sentiments of Muslims, as well as expert views that burials were safe.
Issuing a statement on Tuesday, the government said the Cabinet approved a joint proposal from a group of ministers “to plead an apology on behalf of the government”, from all communities affected by the compulsory cremation policy during the pandemic, when President Gotabaya Rajapaksa was in office.
The government cited two studies it commissioned later that showed burying the bodies of Covid-19 victims presented no risk of the virus spreading through the water table – the claim that authorities based their policy decision on.
The Gotabaya Rajapaksa administration’s policy, which disregarded prevalent opinion of scientists and global bodies — including the World Health Organization — that victims could be buried or cremated, caused much agony especially to Sri Lanka’s Muslim community. They were prohibited from burying their relatives according to their religious beliefs.
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According to the official statement, a total of 276 Muslims who succumbed to the virus were cremated at that time, despite a persistent campaign from the Muslim community, which makes up about 10% of the country’s 22-million population, and rights defenders. Some went to the Supreme Court in 2020, but the top court dismissed the petitions challenging the government’s decision that was widely seen as unscientific and discriminatory. The policy, which came into effect in April 2020, was later reversed in February 2021, reportedly after an appeal made by then Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan who visited the island nation earlier that month.
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