COLOMBO (UCAN): Sri Lanka made cremations compulsory for Covid-19 coronavirus (SARS-Cov-2) victims on April 12, ignoring protests from Muslims with two early Covid-19 deaths—Muslims—cremated against the wishes of their families.
The compulsory cremations have angered the Muslim community, whose shops and houses were attacked by Buddhist extremists after the Easter Sunday suicide bombings last year by an Islamic militant group.
The United Nations (UN) special rapporteur on freedom of religion and belief, Ahmed Shaheed, urged the Sri Lankan government to respect burial rights and stop hate speech against Muslims. “We respectfully reiterate the importance that the government continues to uphold the right of freedom of religion or belief as well as the right of the minorities even during this challenging time,” Shaheed said in a letter to the country’s president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
“The protection of the privacy and identity of the patients or deceased without identifying their ethnicity or religious background in public would prevent their stigmatisation as individuals or member of a specific community,” the special rapporteur said.
Shaheed stressed the importance of the government condemning hate speech that instigates ethnic or religious tensions or violence, including insinuations or blame that “any particular ethnic or religious community is responsible for the pandemic of Covid-19.”
A Muslim businessman from Ja-ela, who requested anonymity, said that there has been a clear trend of growing hate propaganda against Muslims in mainstream and social media in Sri Lanka.
“The government should protect the right to freedom of religion as well as the rights of minorities. We are human beings … please don’t discredit the religious or ethnic background of the patient or deceased,” he said.
M. Azeez, a Muslim fish vendor from Minuwangoda, said that Covid-19 respects no religion or race and that Muslims respect swift burial, preferably within 24 hours of death.
“Poor people have no money to buy fish or day-to-day basic requirements,” said Azeez, who sell fish from house-to-house.
“All are my friends but some comments of extremist groups create disharmony among us. Let us live freely with human dignity,” he said.
Biraj Patnaik, the South Asia director of Amnesty International, said authorities should be bringing communities together and not deepening divisions.
“Grieving relatives of people who have died because of Covid-19 should be able to bid farewell to their loved ones in the way that they wish, especially where this is permissible under international guidelines,” Patnaik said.
A group of Muslim organisations have demanded an immediate investigation and urgent action from police, while the UN rapporteur asked the government to provide the rationale for limiting the method of the disposal of dead bodies to cremation.
“Arbitrary decisions concerning the disposal of bodies of victims of Covid-19 may also have the opposite effect (of) provoking the reluctance of families and communities to report Covid-19 cases in fear that they may be unable ensure a proper funeral or burial rites for their loved ones,” Shaheed said.
As of May 5, Sri Lanka reported 771 Covid-19 cases and nine deaths and 213 recoveries.
