Tamil diaspora groups condemn mandatory cremation of COVID-19 victims

An influential Tamil diaspora outfit extended support for the burial rights of the COVID-19 victims condemning the government policy of mandatory cremation. 

The Global Tamil Forum (GTF), an umbrella outfit of Tamil diaspora organizations acorss the globe urged the leaders of all communities to do all they can to have this irrational and discriminatory government policy reversed.

“Sri Lanka’s mandatory cremation policy has caused major outrage and trauma for the Muslim and Christian minorities, whose beliefs require dead bodies should be buried. It is the Muslim community that has been disproportionately affected by COVID-19, and to force them to adopt practices that violate their fundamental religious beliefs is cruel and inhumane,” GTF said in a statement. 

GTF also stressed that it has been reported that the abuse of this policy is widespread and several Muslims whose bodies were cremated had not been tested for coronavirus, and even tested negative.

“Another tragic manifestation of this policy is that several Muslim families have even disowned their dead because they did not want to be complicit in the cremation of their bodies which is believed to be a sinful act against their loved ones. There is no scientific justification for the government to adopt this policy and deny the dead the dignity they deserve in death. In fact, the guidelines from the World Health Organization state that the burial of victims posed no danger to public health, and almost all the countries allow for the burial of COVID-19 victims, making Sri Lanka an outlier among the world nations,” GTF said. 

GTF further added that even for Sri Lanka with its long history of discrimination and marginalisation of its minority communities, the mandatory cremation policy is a step too far.