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In a letter today (28) to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the Chief Secretary of the Sanga Sabha of the Amarapura Maha Nikaya, Pallekande Ratanasara Anunayake Thero and the Chief Secretary of the Ramanna Maha Nikaya, Aththangane Sasanarathne Thero said Muslims and Christians follow the ritual of burying their dead, and noted that this is enshrined in the Constitution in Article 14 (1) as a fundamental right.

They further noted that though cremation of COVID-19 victims was made mandatory via a gazette notification on April 11, considerable research on the matter had been carried out over the past eight months.

The Amarapura and Ramanna Samagri Maha Sangha Sabha said that the burial of COVID-19 victims should be carried out subject to conditions and with research.

They urged President Rajapaksa to convene an emergency meeting with doctors, virologists, public health inspectors, religious leaders, and other stakeholders to discuss the matter.

This is aimed at expediting the repatriation of Sri Lankans and ensuring that tourists entering the country are not infected with the COVID-19 virus.

The decision was taken during a meeting with Tourism Development Authority and Health Ministry officials and representatives from private hospitals held at the Tourism Ministry yesterday. The Minister requested health officials to take measures to increase the number of PCR tests conducted daily as the country is now open for tourists and was repatriating more Sri Lankans stranded abroad due to the pandemic.

The Health Ministry is currently conducting around 15,000 PCR tests a day while around 3,000 PCR tests are being conducted by private hospitals daily.

Sri Lanka welcomed its first batch of foreign tourists since March, a group comprising 180 Ukrainian nationals, as part of a pilot project aimed at reviving the tourism industry.

The three tourists who were diagnosed with the coronavirus have been referred for treatment.

The tourists were directed to their respective hotels after undergoing PCR tests.

The second batch of 204 Ukrainian tourists arrived in Sri Lanka yesterday (29).

Sri Lanka’s transformation into a production orientated market economy with import restrictions will be leading the country towards the emergence of a separate domestic capitalist class.

The batch of foreign tourists, who arrived on board a SkyUp Airlines flight, will be staying in the country for around 10-14 days, according to the Ministry of Tourism.

They are the first group of tourists to arrive in the island since March this year when airports were closed owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sri Lanka has reopened its airspace for commercial flights as the island nation looks to once again kick start the tourism industry which was on hold due to the coronavirus contagion.

Accordingly, the charter flight with 185 passengers from Ukraine which arrived yesterday, marked the first flight to arrive under the pilot project aiming to bring back foreign tourists to Sri Lanka.

Deputy Chairman of Airport and Aviation Sri Lanka Ltd, Rajiv Sooriyarachchi said that after this group of tourists reached the airport, they were subjected to all quarantine procedures.

The Civil Aviation Authority of Sri Lanka (CAASL) had announced earlier that it will resume international flights operations from December 26, eight months after they were closed in view of the COVID-19 outbreak.

However, a decision was taken to postpone the resumption of flights in the wake of the new coronavirus strain, which is spreading fast in the UK.

Due to the postponement, a flight carrying Russian tourists which was scheduled to arrive in Sri Lanka on Sunday had been cancelled.

Several countries across the world have already closed their land and sea borders and suspended commercial flights over fears about the new coronavirus strain.

He expressed the belief that local manufacturers have the potential to do this and they could produce some of these components saving much needed foreign exchange for the country.

A 6-member expert committee has been appointed by the Minister to find ways and means to promote this sector and make recommendations to launch the production of insulators locally for the power transmission sector.

The local manufacturers will have to produce insulators for the requirements of the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) and Lanka Electric Company (LECO) initially, a senior official of the ministry disclosed.

The committee comprises representatives with expert knowledge from the Ministries of Power, Industries, CEB, LECO and Lanka Ceramic Corporation.

Minister Alahapperuma has directed the committee to submit their report within a month, the official said.

The government has endorsed the budgetary support of the Treasury to this sector towards strategic growth in terms of technology, investments and employment generation.

It is well positioned to benefit from the industry’s steadily increasing levels of manufacturing in Asia, and can contribute to the diversification and technological upgrading of Sri Lanka’s exports, he added.

The ministry in collaboration with the Ministry of Industries will also be introducing a national-level framework for sector development, with focused product lines, and by encouraging investments into these product lines.

It will initiate a few electrical component manufacturing projects of national importance that will lead to improved and enhanced production in the sector, he disclosed.

Protesting against the forced cremation of covid-19 victims the father, Mohammed Fowze and his son clad in white carrying placards with slogans seeking burial of the dead Muslims started their protest walk from Kalmunai to Akkaraipattu which was stopped at Sainthamaruthu.

Based on a petition from Kalmunai police citing Covid-19 restrictions, potential damage to private and public property and disruption of traffic, the local magistrate issued a restraining order valid till first November next year.

The march was subsequently suspended and a petition urging the government to honour their civil and religious rights, which was read out in public before handing it over to the authorities.

The planned peace march started after rendering of Muslim religious prayers for the dead who were cremated and for the recovery of those who are infected.

On the same day, police provided security to Sinhala Buddhist hardliners led by monks who opposed the burial rights of Muslim COVID-19 victims.

The Sri Lankan government has ordered the cremation of all those dead due to the Corona virus which has been criticised by a section of senior Buddhist monks and political leaders. But an unrelenting government under President Gotabaya Rajapaksa went to the extent of requesting the Maldives to accept the remains of Muslims and bury them in their soil.

Human Rights organisations have condemned the government of brutally suppressing the religious rights of the minorities, in particular the Muslims, during the global pandemic crisis.

She said that any vaccine or cure introduced to combat COVID-19 must be properly tested by clinical trials and pointed out that failing to do so could create adverse effects.

While noting that this syrup was approved by the Department of Ayurveda, she insisted that the media refrain from asking questions about various Ayurvedic concoctions from her.

"We did not approve. It's too late to talk about this syrup now,”she said.

She added that it was due to cultural beliefs that people thought 'Kali Amma' could cure diseases and that although she did not want to discredit such claims, she would rather provide information based on medical science.

US financial support will be dependent on Sri Lanka asserting its sovereignty “against influence by China,” and improving human rights and promoting inter religious and ethnic reconciliation, a USD 900 billion spending bill before the congress stipulated.

The bill as amended by the US Senate mainly involves Coronavirus relief but also assistance to a number of foreign countries and other spending.

It was also revealed that future financial support for Sri Lanka will be available after the secretary of state certifies, among other things, that Sri Lanka acts to “assert its sovereignty against influence by the People’s Republic of China.”

The bill further stated that Sri Lanka should also promote reconciliation between ethnic and religious groups, increase transparency and accountability in governance, respect and uphold the rights and freedoms of the people of Sri Lanka regardless of ethnicity and religious belief” and bring perpetrators to justice.

US and Western interests have warned that China is getting developing countries into a ‘debt trap’ by giving loans without adequate feasibility to generate returns, unlike more seasoned multilateral lending agencies.

However, these conditions don't apply to any humanitarian or disaster relief, support to identify missing persons, improve human rights, promote fiscal transparency and sovereignty and international military education and training.

The US said it was also giving USD 15 million to refurbish a coast guard cutter and another half a million dollars to for programs to support humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, instruction in human rights and related curricula development, and maritime security and domain awareness, including professionalization and training for the navy and coast guard.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has come under intense pressure from the Chief Prelates of the three sects urging him to refrain from conducting the Provincial Council elections until a new Constitution is introduced as promised, internal government sources revealed.

The sources said that the Chief Prelates will take action against the government if they decide to conduct the Provincial Council elections under mounting pressure from Basil Rajapaksa.

It is reported that several monks who are loyal to the President have convened a special media briefing today to discuss this matter.

Meanwhile, the 'Anidda' newspaper, in its headline this week, stated that "Mahinda and Basil want to hold the PC election, Gotabaya is silent."

According to the news report, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and SLPP National Organiser Basil Rajapaksa are adamant that the Provincial Council elections should be held soon under the old electoral system.