A leading Muslim organisation in Sri Lanka will this week send an official letter of concern to the global Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the World Muslim Congress, seeking their intervention to urge the Sri Lankan government to allocate a decent land for the burial of Muslim COVID-19 victims.

The Daily Mirror learns that the Sri Lanka Islamic Centre, which is a member of the World Muslim Congress will raise serious concerns with the global bodies and will also send a letter to the World Muslim Congress office in Geneva urging for immediate intervention after the government announced that burials of the COVID-19 dead would take place on the Iranaithivu Island, in the Gulf of Mannar.

Senior Muslim officials said they were disappointed at the government’s decision to allocate the Iranaithivu Isle for the burials and instead urged the government to find a suitable land elsewhere in the country.

The Daily Mirror learns that two lands have been proposed by the Muslim community – the Kupiyawatta burial grounds in Colombo and a five acre land in Mannar, in the north which belongs to a local mosque in the area, where ground water level reports have been carried out by the Geologists from the Department of Geology from the University of Peradeniya.

When questioned, a senior geologist from the Geology Department of the Peradeniya University confirmed that ground water level reports had been carried out on both the lands and the proposed land in Mannar was found to have low water levels.

Senior Muslim officials said the proposed land in Mannar was ready to undertake burials of the COVID19 dead immediately and were concerned why these requests were ignored by the health authorities who were notified.

Meanwhile Minister of Water Supply, Vasudeva Nanayakkara told Daily Mirror that according to his knowledge, he was not aware of any feasibility report carried out on the Iranaithivu Island to bury COVID-19 dead but said he had proposed two more lands, one in the North and another in the East which had low water levels and was suitable to bury the COVID19 dead. He said he had handed over these recommendations to the expert committee for them to decide.

A plan by Sri Lanka to bury Muslim coronavirus victims on a remote islet was slammed on Wednesday by locals and the minority community.

Colombo banned burials of Covid-19 victims in April, despite expert assurances they would not spread the virus, implementing a policy of forced cremations.

Sri Lanka’s Muslims, who make up 10 percent of its 21 million people, challenged the policy, pointing out that cremations are forbidden under Islamic law.

The policy was revoked last week after a visit from Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, who urged Colombo to respect Muslims’ religious funeral rites.

And on Tuesday, officials proposed burying Muslim virus victims on the remote islet of Iranaitivu, 8.6 miles (13 kilometres) off the country’s northern coast.

That plan sparked protests from locals as well as from Muslim leaders. On Wednesday dozens of Tamil residents, led by Catholic priests, demonstrated in Kilinochchi, the nearest mainland district to Iranaitivu.

They held banners saying the one-square-kilometre (0.4-square-mile) island should not be used as a “graveyard” for the pandemic.

The main Muslim party, the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), said families “want to bury our people in our own burial grounds”.

“This proposal of a remote island is an insult, it is unacceptable,” SLMC leader Rauff Hakeem told AFP.

The islet burials policy has yet to be rolled out.

Ahead of Khan’s visit to Colombo, the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation in February criticised the cremations policy at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, citing similar religious concerns.

Sri Lanka’s majority Buddhists, strong backers of the current government, are typically cremated, as are Hindus.

In December, authorities ordered the cremation of at least 19 Muslim Covid-19 victims after their families refused to claim the bodies from a hospital morgue in protest against the policy.

By Wednesday, Sri Lanka had recorded more than 83,000 coronavirus infections, with 483 related deaths.

Sri Lanka has urgently taken three major decisions with an eye on getting the support of India and the Muslim states in the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva where a vote is to be taken later this month on a resolution castigating it for human riots violations and alleged war crimes.

Maritime Security Secretariat

For starters, Sri Lanka established a Secretariat for a Trilateral Maritime Security System which had been proposed by a conference of National Security Advisors at the instance of the Indian National Security Advisor Ajit Doval in November 2020. The Lankan government had been dragging its feet on this issue, as it has good relations with China, the emerging power in the Indian Ocean with growing economic stakes in Sri Lanka.

India’s plan was to draw Sri Lanka and the Maldives into a maritime security structure in the Indian Ocean against China’s increasing intrusions. Sri Lanka, which, as stated earlier, was dragging its feet on setting up the structure, finally decided to set it up because it had become an urgent necessity to get India’s support at the UNHRC, where, at the moment, only ten of the 47 members are decidedly pro-Sri Lanka. At the Council, India had struck an ambiguous note hinting that it might abstain. This caused concern in Sri Lanka making Foreign Secretary Adm.Prof. Jayanath Colombage to appeal for India’s support through interviews to The Hindu and India Today. Hedescribed India as “Mother India” which should not let Sri Lanka down.

India was palpably annoyed when the Lankan government backed out of a written commitment to give a project to build, operate and transfer the East Container Terminal in Colombo port to India and Japan. India was not convinced about Colombo’s plea that port unions and nationalists were against the project going to India. New Delhi suspected the hidden hand of Beijing which runs a terminal in Colombo port.

India’s stand in Geneva (where it upheld the minority Tamils’ rights) seemed to stem from the disappointment on the container terminal issue. Lacking trust in Sri Lanka, India was cool when Sri Lanka said that India and Japan could help develop the West Container Terminal in Colombo port.

West Container Terminal

Realizing the gravity of the situation, the Lankan cabinet made a more concrete offer on the West Container Terminal on March 1. The approved cabinet paper said that the West Container Terminal (WCT) is to be developed as a Public-Private Limited Company in partnership with India’s Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Limited (APSEZ Consortium) along with its local representative John Keells Holding PLC (APSEZ Consortium), and Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA).

Accordingly, the Build, Operate, and Transfer Plan approved by a Cabinet Appointed Negotiation Committee had been forwarded to the High Commission of India and Embassy of Japan to nominate investors. Subsequently, proposals by the Adani Group and Special Economic Zone Limited (APSEZ Consortium) were approved by the Indian High Commission. However, no investor has been named by the Japanese government yet, the March 1 cabinet paper said.

The Cabinet Appointed Negotiation Committee presented their recommendations based on the discussions held with the two parties and the Cabinet approved the proposal put forward by the Ports Minister. The terminal will be developed on a 35-year Build, Operate, and Transfer basis with the aforementioned stakeholders, the government said. .

However, India’s reaction to this proposal is not known yet. Apparently it wants to wait and watch before moving on the offer.

Burial Issue

Another key decision taken to get over the hump at the UNHRC in Geneva is the belated one to allow the burial of the bodies of COVID-19 victims in Iranaitivu, a set of two tiny islands off the North Western coast of Sri Lanka in the Gulf of Mannar.

But the decision to allow burial, which came after one year of rejection on specious environmental grounds, is not guaranteed to win brownie points among Muslim nations in the UNHRC as it has been rejected by the Muslim Council of Sri Lanka.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, the Council’s Vice President Hilmy Ahamed said: “ The shocking news of government suggesting burial in Iranthivu islands is a bigger blunder than the forced cremation of over 300 Muslims.”

“The Jeniffer Perera committee clearly approved burial in all Muslim burial grounds subject to strict adherence to quarantine rules and placing the body in double body bags. What more is needed when science has proven beyond any doubt that the corona virus cannot contaminate ground water sources?”

“The dead cannot spread the disease while waste water from quarantine centres would certainly do. “

“How come the bright boys chose an inhabited island if they still believe that the virus can contaminate ground water? No wonder We live in a country like no other.”

Iranaitivu is an inhabited island, albeit with a small population of Tamil Catholic fisherfolk. It also has a naval base. The island is short of drinking water sources.

The Muslim Council is contemplating going to the Supreme Court with a petition against the decision, Ahamed added.

Source:newsin.asia

The National People’s Power (NPP) led by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) has decided to extend their fullest support to the ‘Black Sunday’ protests to be held on March 7 by the Archdiocese of Colombo calling for justice to the victims of the Easter Sunday attacks.

The NPP, in a statement said they were urging the government and law enforcement authorities to reveal the mastermind behind the attack, take immediate action against the wrongdoers and to mete out justice to the victims of the attacks.

It said the opinion of the general public is that the final PCoI report on the Easter Sunday Attacks only had created another puzzle rather than resolving the issue.

“It is obvious that justice will not be meted out to the people who were affected by the mayhem even at this stage,” the statement said.