Forced Cremations - The intersection of racism and tragedy in Sri Lanka's COVID-19 policies

The Doghouse

TRIGGER WARNING - In this episode of the Doghouse we are talking about the grief inflicted upon thousands of victims of COVID-19 and their families by the administration of ex-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Beginning with retro-active changes to public health guidelines on the handling of the bodies of COVID-19 victims, disinformation regarding the spread of the virus post-mortem, jingoist posturing, and racist dog whistling, the Gotabaya Rajapaksa administration denied thousands of people basic human decency and the right to mourn the dead in line with their faith. We're also talking about how even after deciding to allow burials at a specific location, the government foisted the burden of maintaining and operating the cemetery on resettled IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons) and the local government authority. Our investigation into the forced cremations policy and the burial site in Majma Nagar, Oddamavadi, can be found here. https://longform.watchdog.team/observations/oddamavadi-no-rest-for-the-dead Download the Watchdog App for Android! Music - Cantina Rag by Jackson F. Smith is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (aka Music Sharing) 3.0 International License.