“We will build bridges between communities and not walls”: Justice Minister

Text and pic by P.D. de Silva

Minister of Justice Ali Sabry on Wednesday said that it was the Government’s intention to build bridges between communities and not build walls.

The Minister who was on an inspection tour of the new court complex being built in Kotawila Matara, made this comment in reply to a question raised by a journalist regarding the present issue in debate whether the cadavers of the COVID-19 dead could be cremated or buried.

He said that at present nearly 190 countries in the world are permitting the cadavers of their COVID-19 dead to be either cremated or buried and therefore the Muslim community in Sri Lanka had requested the Government to obtain expert opinion and review its stand of mandatory cremation. He added that the request was not made not in arrogance but in good faith as the Muslim community in Sri Lanka may feel that they have been discriminated in this respect.

The Minister admitted that the Government was unable to contain the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic as it did the first but assured that the situation was being brought under control.

Minister Sabry said that all shortcomings had been addressed after discussions with stakeholders and the new court complex at Kotawila would be operative from the first week March 2021. He also said that action would be taken to speedup clearing of the backlog of court cases.

State Minister Kanchana Wijesekera, representatives of the Matara Bar Association, Government officials and local Government representatives accompanied the Minister on the inspection tour.