Finally, Covid Burial Restrictions Removed: A Racist Regime Exposed!

By Mohamed Harees –MARCH 6, 2022

Lukman Harees

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world: Indeed it’s the only thing that ever has.” ~ Margaret Mead, American cultural anthropologist.

Faced with a deepening economic and humanitarian crisis, Sri Lanka finally called off an ill-conceived racist experiment recently, which produced only misery. With the opening lines ‘Considering the evolving knowledge of Covid-19 infection….’, the official circular from the Minister of Health dd 2/3/2022 continued , ‘the management protocols of Covid-19 related deaths are revised…hereafter allowing both cremation and burials of Covid-19 related bodies in any cemetery’. Wonder who will have the last laugh? Yes! of course, this final change in Policy certainly brought sheer relief to people particularly in other parts of the country, who were earlier allowed to bury their dead, stricken by Covid-19, in Ottamawadi in the East after a ‘partial reversal of policy’ in 2021.

It also indeed gave a sense of triumph to those who stood up against the State-sanctioned forced cremation policy of this racist government. It is however interesting to find out from the so-called technical committee which consistently banned covid burials, what is the evolving knowledge being referred to in this circular or what is the new found scientific evidence, which prompted them to scientifically allow covid burials finally in any cemetery two years later? Will they and those higher ups in this government be held to account? It will be apt to revisit this sad episode in Sri Lanka’s racist, at times violent ridden history to learn lessons for the future.

The grieved families of the 300+ Covid-19 Muslim deaths in Sri Lanka, forcibly reduced to ashes against their religious dictates, with no funeral rights or family nearby, only to later discover later that it was all a racist hoax played upon them for petty political gains, need some plausible answers. Who will take responsibility for this tragic and wilful negligence? Who can transform their ashes to flesh and bones, so that that bitter past can be rewound and their remains be buried whole in dignity, and not in urns? The fact of the matter and the reality was that there were no feasible medical reasons for the Covid burial ban then and obviously none now. Both the medical fraternity and the scientific community, local and global were pointing this out in plain and simple language, which unfortunately did not strike a chord with the racist agenda of the Gotabaya government. If this was not State sanctioned racist discrimination and raw racism, then what was? Thankfully, the successful resistance to the policy of enforced cremation saw it reversed, which was the product of an unusual and inspiring coalition of activists, religious institutions and citizens from all of Sri Lanka’s communities, working in tandem with international bodies and Sri Lankan diaspora groups.

The meme ‘Dying While Muslim’ may not be as familiar as ‘Flying While Muslim’ – which came into prominence in the post-9/11 years when Muslims began to experience Islamophobia after being singled out at airports and airlines. But this meme gained popularity in the Sri Lankan context, where particularly Muslims were at the butt end of compulsory state-sanctioned cremations – a discriminatory act in violation of their faith.. Thus, in Sri Lanka, even a dead Covid affected Muslim was not afforded a dignified send-off as per the dictates of his faith, for no plausible scientific reason, other than the bigotry of a regime which was seen to be rely on a steady diet of anti-Muslim hatred for their political survival, to divert public attention away from their sheer inefficiency and mismanagement. Recently, I authored a book titled under this meme which documented developments contextualising the raw materials of this anti-Muslim policy, which came about to be a central state policy and showing how state and non-state hatred can be resisted by courageous and imaginative collective action.

Pressure politics, if used wisely, can be a powerful tool. The best example was Sri Lanka’s policy on forced cremations of Covid dead with no scientific explanation for it. A few Buddhist monks apparently claimed burying the victims would contaminate the ground and the government agreed. Then a technical committee was appointed which did not have competent virologists which negates the purpose of such a committee. A classic case of appeasement politics but they probably didn’t anticipate the backlash. However, the whole racist project boomeranged in style on the rulers. Rights groups and community leaders were appalled. The world community turned on Colombo. The Lankan Government was backed itself into a corner. Finally the discriminatory order was revoked an year later in February 2021. However, although there were no more forced cremations and Muslims were free to bury their relatives, burials were only confined to an identified land in Ottamawadi in the East. It was this discriminatory baseless policy which was fully reversed via this afore-stated circular.

In an article in Human Rights Pulse, titled ‘Discrimination against Sri Lanka’s Muslim community during the pandemic: a chilling foreshadow’ (21/12/20), Esther Hoole says, ‘The government’s stance is, at best, careless of the rights and requests of the Muslim community. At worst, it is deliberately discriminatory and cruel. Neither of these attitudes is a new phenomenon. From the outset of the current government’s entry into power in a landslide vote by the Sinhalese majority, the Sri Lankan government has—both subtly and overtly—highlighted its disregard for minority communities, of which the Muslim community is one. Within this majoritarian structure, there has also been growing hatred particularly against the Muslim community, continuing the trajectory of the past few years.

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