SL sticks to cremation of Muslim Covid-19 victims despite uproar

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s government insisted on Friday on the cremation of all coronavirus victims, rejecting international pleas and recommendations from its own experts to allow the Muslim minority to bury their dead in line with Islamic custom.

The government first banned burials in April amid concerns -- which experts say are baseless -- by influential Buddhist monks that burying bodies could contaminate groundwater and spread the virus.

The World Health Organisation has said that there is no such risk, recommending both burials and cremations of virus victims, but the Sri Lankan government has refused.

"This decision will not be changed for social, religious, political or any other personal reason," Health Minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi said, according to ministry officials. The announcement came despite a government-appointed expert committee noting this week that while it felt cremations were safest, burials could be allowed under strict conditions.