A representative of Sri Lanka’s Eastern Province has revealed in Parliament, the fate of Muslims in the province who donated land to the government for burial of the bodies of those who died from the Covid pandemic during the Gotabaya Rajapaksa regime, in order to prevent the forcible cremation.
Sri Lanka Muslim Congress National List Parliamentarian Mohamed Sali Naleem says that at a time when protests are being launched in several places across the country demanding that the bodies of COVID-19 patients not be buried, the 17 acres of land donated by the Muslim community for the burial of those bodies were previously used for cultivation.
“When there was a search for a place to bury the Bodies of People Who Died from COVID-19, people of Majma Nagar in Ottamawadi area came forward and gave about 17 acres of land. Those people gave a burial ground not only to Muslims but to the entire Sri Lankan people. When there were protests in other places not to bury the bodies, those people gave the land and allowed the bodies to be buried.”
The last body to be buried at the Ottamawadi cemetery was on March 4, 2022. The number of dead buried there in a year is 3634. The majority of them are Muslims, ie 2992, but 287 Buddhists are also buried there, according to the Ministry of Health.
According to official statistics released by the then Coordinating Secretary of the Ministry of Health, Anwar Hamdani, among those buried in the Oottamavadi cemetery are 2225 males and 1409 females, including 270 Hindus and 85 Christians.
On February 7, Muslim Congress leader Rauff Hakeem had submitted a private member’s motion to Parliament to appoint a parliamentary select committee to investigate the serious misconducts committed by then government, including the forcible cremation of the bodies of people who died of the coronavirus pandemic, despite the recommendations of the World Health Organization and the opposition of relatives.
Joining the debate, MP Mohamed Sali Naleem further emphasized that the poor people who donated their agricultural land were deeply saddened by the government’s failure to provide any relief or replacement of land.
“However, those people are in a very sad situation. Because the poor people living there, the people who earn their living by doing daily wage labor, the land where those bodies were buried was used for cultivation. From the previous government to this government, no relief or replacement of land has been provided. I request that those people be given some relief.”
Opposition MP Mujibur Rahman, joining the debate, emphasized that the government that forcibly cremated the bodies of those who died during the COVID-19 pandemic has gone down in world history as well as in human history, as a group that committed a heinous crime against all cultures in Sri Lanka.
In March 2021, the government changed the policy of forcibly cremating all Covid corpses, which had been in place for a year despite domestic and international criticism, and restricted the burial of bodies only to a land donated by Muslims in Majma Nagar, Ottamawadi, Batticaloa.
The ban was lifted exactly one year later.
The first major public protest against the Gotabaya Rajapaksa regime – the five-day, 700-kilometer-long march from Pottuvil to Polikandi known as P2P, which was led by the Tamil political leadership in early February 2021 – also protested against the forced cremation of Muslims.
A few days later, following the arrival of Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan in Sri Lanka, the government, without giving any reason, granted permission for the burial of COVID-19 victims only in the Ottamawadi cemetery.
