Ali Sabry and forced cremations 

Foreign Minister Ali Sabry who visited the United States on an official visit expressed regret over the decision taken by the previous Gotabaya Rajapaksa administration to deny burial for COVID-19 victims. Speaking in Parliament last week Sabry said it was unfortunate the Government chose to deny the burial of COVID-19 victims when all the evidence suggested otherwise. 

The forced cremations of Muslim victims of the COVID-19 pandemic will go down in history as one of the most callous and blatantly racist policies enacted by the Rajapaksa administration. This policy extended to the Sri Lankan president requesting the government of neighbouring Maldives to bury the mortal remains of deceased Muslim citizens in that country and later mandating bodies to be transported to Oddamavadi in the Eastern Province under military escort for ritual burial. These communal burials were performed in a highly militarised environment with only two relatives allowed near the site. The ad hoc burial site did not even have basic amenities to serve grieving families.

Sri Lanka was the only country in the world to have forced cremations and banned burials. The policy was not based on any scientific evidence of a virus being spread through ground water after burial of human remains which an ordinary level science education would have taught since viruses need living cells for their own survival.

Sabry who was the Justice Minister under the previous regime when these atrocious policies were enacted particularly targeting the Muslim community now claims “it was a decision that was devoid of logic, science, and empathy, and one that should not have been made,” further stating that a doctor and a known female academic had gone on the media claiming that if COVID-19 bodies were buried, the virus could leak out millions of years from now, which had resulted in the said decision.

“This one decision lost us the support of several Middle Eastern countries, including the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) which has over 50 countries. We need to realise that we cannot survive alone in this world and need the support of other nations,” Sabry added.

Minister Sabry was at the forefront of promoting Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who was accused of racist policies and even promoting extremist groups that unleashed violence against the Muslim community in 2012-2012. As the former President’s personal lawyer Sabry was fully aware of the individual he was promoting to the Sri Lankan people. Sabry was also one of the foremost proponents of the 20th Amendment which entrusted enormous powers with this incompetent individual. Having done all that harm, Sabry claims that the Cabinet of Ministers based its decisions on the recommendations on two individuals. This is a sad indictment on the average intelligence of the Cabinet of Ministers including the then Justice Minister. 

Minister Sabry in his attempts to rebrand himself under the Ranil Wickremesinghe administration is viewed by many as fast becoming a political charlatan. Having been at the forefront of the campaign to elect Gotabaya Rajapaksa as president and providing a degree of credibility to that racist regime as the sole Muslim minister in cabinet, he cannot now wash his hands off his own culpability in policies of the regime. The Muslim community and the greater electorate must remember the role played by Sabry and others of his ilk if there is any hope of never again falling victim to race baiting, opportunistic politicians.