15/12/2020
To all right thinking people of Sri Lanka,
What’s Cremated are , not the co**ses of the dead..
But The human rights of the living.
This is not just a struggle of the Muslim and Christian people for religious burial... but
This is a struggle for democracy in Sri Lanka.’’
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Signed:
1. Mr. Redly Silva – United Kingdom
2. Revd Princely Croos, Church of England, UK.
3. Prof. N. Shanmugaratnam – Norway
4. Mr. B.A.Kader - United Kingdom
5. Mr. Lukman Harees - United Kingdom
6. Mr. Mahroof Fauzer - United Kingdom
7. Mr. Suresh Sivaguru – France.
COVID-19 has been a test for our societies, and we are all learning and adapting as we respond to the virus. We understand the need for a range of steps to combat COVID-19. During such times there is a need to restrict certain rights relating to the respective religious beliefs and practices the people of the country enjoy.However, when a need arises to limit such rights, there should be credible evidence to justify such an action.
At this difficult time, the authorities should also be bringing communities together and not deepening divisions between them. 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’.
However, the area of disposal of Covid affected bodies has become a highly contentious issue, polarizing communities in the process. Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Health in March 2020 initially issued guidelines that allowed both cremation and burial options .
However, in early April 2020, after the first death of a Muslim Covid patient in Negombo, the said COVID-19 guidelines were amended to read as ‘the standard procedure of disposing bodies should only becremation’,thus effectively ruling out the burial option. This ruling adversely affected particularly the religious and cultural rights and traditions of Muslim and Christian communities.
International Human Rights Law protects the freedom of religion of all people, which includes manifesting their religion or belief in worship, observance and practice. Notably the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which Sri Lanka has signed and ratified, requires that restrictions on human rights in the name of public health or a public emergency must be strictly necessary to reach the objective, based on scientific evidence, neither arbitrary nor discriminatory in application, of limited duration, respectful of human dignity, and subject to review.
At first glance, Sri Lankan authorities insisting that the bodies of all Covid-19 victims be cremated, no matter their religion, might seem fair. However, upon closer inspection it is patently clear that the decision to enforce the ‘Forced cremations Policy’ was taken on arbitrary grounds sans any scientific evidence, contrary to WHO guidelines, and its motivations must therefore be questioned. This warped policy has clearly tarnished international Sri Lanka’s image of relatively containing the Coronavirus more successfully than many other countries, including those in the West. Thus, while fighting the pandemic, Sri Lanka appears to have unfortunately given a new lease of life to an equally dangerous virus: ‘State sanctioned’ racism.
Why Oppose ‘Forced Cremations’ ?
The Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) appointed a technical committee to study the options. But, to-date, the stance taken by the Committee has been that the virus in the cadavers would pollute the water sources of Sri Lanka, given its low groundwater tables and high humidity, and that burial of COVID-19 dead can contribute to the spread of the virus or provide a health threat. However, to-date, the authorities have given no plausible and credible evidence to support their contention. Casting doubts of the competence of this so-called technical committee, Prof TissaVitarana, a renowned Virologist and a former head of the Medical Research Institute's Virology department recently lamented in an interview with Daily Mirror that there are no virologists in the committee. If the decision-makers, having considered all facts and aspects and have reached a decision based on scientific, medical or logical concerns, no community will or should have any issues with it and they should gladly comply with it. However, the realities are not so.
The truth is, the World Health Organization (WHO) has clearly laid down guidelines with regard to the disposal of Covid bodies. They have stated quite explicitly that both cremation and burial options are safe in such disposal . WHO tweeted on 10th April 2020 that ‘It is a common myth that persons who have died of a communicable disease should be cremated, but this is not true. Cremation is a matter of cultural choice and available resources’. European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) also says, ‘Decedents with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 can be buried or cremated as usual’.
Many scientific pundits both in Sri Lanka and outside, have been quite vocal against this gross violation of human rights in the guise of fighting the Covid pandemic. World noted expert and one of the world’s top Virologist Professor, Hugh Pennington, CBE,FRSE, FRCP, PhD, MB BS, , from the UK says, ‘ The coronavirus will die quite quickly in a dead body -probably all will have gone in less than a week. It doesn't grow in a co**se at all. The virus is spread by the respiratory route, not water. Burial is perfectly safe.”
In Sri Lanka, many reputed public health, virologists and epidemiologists have expressed similar views. In separate interviews, Paba Palihawadana, former Chief Epidemiologist, Director, Central Epidemiological Unit, Ministry of Health, Sri Lanka and Dr Nihal Abeysinghe, former government chief virologist and epidemiologist have also debunked the myth that burial of covid bodies will adversely affect either the water tables or public health, based on available scientific evidence.
In the wettest parts of the world such as in Mawsynram and Cherrapunji in India, Tutunendo in Colombia, Cropp River in New Zealand, Debundscha in Cameroon, Big Bog Maui and Mt. Waialeale in Hawaii, Emei Shan in China this has not been an issue at all. In California alone there are nearly 18 such places and the burial of Covid-19 victims is not an issue there.
In Europe a country like the Netherlands, where about one third of the landmass lies below sea level, such burials is not an issue. While in other countries, such as Germany, Italy, Belgium UK, Ireland France, Sweden, Poland, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Denmarktoo, parts of their land lie below sea level. Yet the burials in these countries are not denied
Besides, over 182 countries around the world allow burials, based on WHO Guidelines. Since the outbreak of the pandemic earlier this year, hundreds of thousands of COVID-19 victims worldwide have been buried and there is no evidence of any adverse impact due to the burials. The protocols for BURIAL of the deceased of the Covid-19 are already in place in several countries. In countries with a high death toll such as the US, Brazil, UK, France, Italy, India or countries with a small landmass such as the Maldives, the question of burial versus cremation has not even arisen.
Therefore, as the UN Resident Coordinator Hanaa Singer stated, ‘during epidemics, for reasons of public health, Governments often need to take difficult and at times unpopular measures. However, in this case, the negative consequences of not allowing burials seem to outweigh any potential epidemiological benefit. The common assumption that people who died of a communicable disease should be cremated to prevent spread is not supported by evidence..
Callous disrespect for Democracy and Gross violation of Human Rights Affects All!
Covid-19 does not discriminate on ethnic, political or religious grounds, and nor should the Government of Sri Lanka.In a year when the importance of solidarity is greatly felt, as communities rally together to survive the pandemic, Sri Lanka has chosen to further alienate communities already reeling from violence, hatemongering, and discrimination. This is clearly State sanctioned racism.
This ‘forced cremation policy has bene particularly impacting adversely upon the Muslim community, whose faith forbids the act of cremating a body, as long as there is no danger to the living. In the context of no scientific basis to deny the burial option to dispose Covid bodies, the callous disregard for religious rites shown by the State has, understandably, caused tremendous distress amongst the Muslim community. Amnesty International stated, ‘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’. The cruelty of not only having to stand idle as a loved one’s body is desecrated but being forced to shoulder the cost of this act has led some Muslim families to refuse the ashes and the associated payment, in an act of protest.
The Health authorities, in the absence of credible evidence, sadly began to concoct conspiracy theories to justify the ‘cremation only’ policy. Dr ChannaPerera, Consultant Forensic Pathologist "attached to Sri Lanka's Ministry of Health" told the BBC World Service: "the government has nothing against Muslims but they have a small fear about whether the virus can be used for unauthorised activities. Maybe an unwanted person could get access to a body and it could be used a biological weapon." This was an unnecessarily anti-Muslim statement that creates unwarranted divisiveness.
It is also really unfortunate that the Supreme Court recentlyclosed the door to further legal challenges in this regard, when the three Judge bench refused to hear the petitions filed by eleven affected families, both Muslim and Christian, who took up a legal battle against the gross violation of their freedom of religion and fundamental rights under the constitution. This can be considered as another blow on the democratic process in Sri Lanka, TheGoSLhas also ignored an April 8 letter from UN Special Rapporteurs, that “prohibiting burial would not be permissible according to ICCPR,” a covenant which protects right to freedom of thought and religion.
Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL), , also in their letter titled "HRCSL observations and recommendations on Extraordinary Gazette No. 2170/8 dated 11th April 2020" addressed to the Secretary of the Ministry of Health stated, ‘mandating cremation of corona virus victims is unacceptable and a gross violation of human rights’. It also goes on to boldly recommend to the Government to "permit burials as well as cremations of bodies of persons who succumb to the Covid-19 virus while adhering to required health guidelines".
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”- Martin Luther King ,Jr
Yes! As Martin Luther King Jnr ,continued, ‘We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” Every society prides itself on how it treats its dead. Death is no hushed whisper in Repercussions of the current decision on mandatory cremation overweigh its intended objectives. The call for a reversal of the ‘cremation only’ policy is already triggering a fresh wave of Islamophobia within the majority community, as the actual position has been made known to them. The real position is that there is no scientific or medical basis for this decision and the WHO Guidelines allowing both burial and cremation options followed by over 182 countries are being flouted stubbornly by the GoSL. Sadly the mandatory cremation of COVID-19 victims is therefore polarizing the country at a time it should be unified against the invisible enemy.
The deterioration in inter-ethnic and inter-religious relations taking place at the present time is thus a serious cause for concern. Ironically, this deterioration is not at the level of the communities on the ground, though it is likely that they too will be dragged into the polarization unless they duly spot the machinations of the vested interests which seek to divide their ranks along racial and religious lines.
Those who make decisions at the highest levels, should therefore also assess the wider social consequences. These can also be mistakes that the Sri Lankans would regret in the years to come. As for the government, it is still not too late to reverse the course. It is the duty of the people to hold the government to account to remedy the injustice to sections of our people, for “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” as Martin Luther King ,Jr echoed.
Well! this should remind us of the poem of Martin Niemöller, a German theologian and Lutheran pastor, which goes thus:
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
Let us oppose oppression of every people!
Let us unite as oppressed people!!
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