Muslims will be exempt from Cambodia’s mandatory order to cremate the bodies of all people who die of COVID-19, the country’s premier said on Wednesday.
Prime Minister Hun Sen, who announced the cremation order a day earlier, said Muslims in the country will be allowed to bury their dead “according to their own traditions and customs.”
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The step was taken after the premier met representatives of the Muslim community, according to a government statement.
Since cremation is forbidden in Islam, the order had sparked concern among Muslims, who constitute approximately 2.1% of Cambodia’s 16.5 million people, according to official data.
Estimates by non-governmental organizations, however, place the figure somewhere between 4% to 5%.
Sen called for “understanding from his compatriots over this exception for the Muslim community,” the statement added.
Cambodia, where the COVID-19 caseload currently stands at 1,060, including 538 recoveries, has not reported any fatality from the virus so far.
However, the premier announced on Tuesday that any future victims must be cremated, saying the decision was taken because the “COVID-19 situation in Cambodia has never been more critical and is still worsening,” according to a report by the daily Phnom Penh Post.
That made Cambodia, which has a majority Buddhist population, just the second country after Sri Lanka to order people to cremate loved ones who die of COVID-19.
