Government to apologize to Sri Lanka’s Muslims for forced cremations

Cabinet has approved a proposal for the Government to apologize to Muslims and others for the forced cremations carried out during the COVID-19 pandemic in Sri Lanka.

The Government noted that, as stipulated in the guidelines published by the Ministry of Health on the Clinical Management of COVID-19, cremation was recommended as a methodology, for the disposal of dead bodies of the persons who died due to the COVID-19 virus.

Accordingly, 276 Muslims who had passed away as a result of the virus were cremated and in the year 2021 February the permission was granted to bury the bodies with strict restrictions.

In July 2021, a study was launched by the Ministry of Water Supply with the assistance of University of Jayawardenapura to identify the SARS-CoV-2 virus in aquatic environments in Colombo and Kandy including the river water, the water released from the hospitals, other quarantine places and other potential places where the waste water was discharged.

It was revealed in the study that there is no virus in the surface water. A second study was also completed in March 2024 by the China- Sri Lanka joint research and Demonstration Center for water technology under the Ministry of Water Supply and estate Infrastructure Development that investigated the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 virus to water resources including the ground water and it was confirmed that the faeces and the urine are the primary source of the transmission the virus but not with the safe burial.

Accordingly, the Cabinet of Ministers approved a joint proposal presented by the Minister of Justice, Prison affairs and Constitution Reforms, Wijeydasa Rajapakshe, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Sabry and Minister of Water Supply and Estate Infrastructure Development Jeevan Thondaman to plead an apology on behalf of the Government, from all the communities affected as a consequence of the compulsory cremation policy enacted in Sri Lanka during the COVID-19 pandemic period.

Meanwhile, it has aldo been decided to introduce a new law to donate the bodies to the Medical Faculty, if necessary.

Accordingly, Cabinet of Ministers approved a joint proposal presented by the Minister of Justice, Prison affairs and Constitution Reforms, and Minister of Foreign Affairs to instruct the legal draftsman to prepare a draft for the introduction of the new law. (Colombo Gazette)