「聖水でコロナ収束」うたったシャーマン、感染して死亡　スリランカ

【コロンボＡＦＰ＝時事】「聖水」でスリランカの新型コロナウイルス流行を収束させられると主張し物議を醸したシャーマンが、同ウイルスに感染して死亡した。家族が２３日、明らかにした。（写真は資料写真）
　首相らも治療してきたエリヤンタ・ホワイト氏（４８）は昨年１１月、自身が祈祷（きとう）を施した「聖水」を川に注げばスリランカと隣国インドの新型コロナ流行を収束させることができると主張していた。
　パウィトゥラ・ワンニアラッチ保健相もホワイト氏の主張を支持していたが、今年１月に新型コロナに感染し、集中治療室（ＩＣＵ）に入った。
　ホワイト氏は２０１０年、１２歳の時から「特別な力」を持っていたとＡＦＰに語っていた。
　家族によると、ホワイト氏は新型コロナワクチンの接種を拒否していた。
　ホワイト氏の遺体は２３日、最大都市コロンボの墓地で、新型コロナ対策の規則に従って火葬された。
　マヒンダ・ラジャパクサ首相はツイッターで、「ホワイト氏のレガシーは、彼が触れて病を治した人々の中で生き続ける」と述べた。
　ホワイト氏はインド古来の伝統医学アーユルベーダの手法を使っていると主張していたが、アーユルベーダの専門医は同氏の主張を否定。現代医学の医師は、ホワイト氏を詐欺師としている。
　スリランカでは、新型コロナでこれまでに５０万人以上が感染し、１万２０００人以上が死亡した。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】

〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2021/09/28-10:32）

Sri Lankan police Thursday arrested a Tamil MP for commemorating a separatist rebel who died campaigning for the minority community, hours after President Gotabaya Rajapaksa called for reconciliation between ethnic groups.
Opposition legislator Selvarajah Kajendran was bundled into a police vehicle in the northern Jaffna peninsula, the heartland of the Tamils, despite protests from onlookers at a memorial for Tiger rebel Thileepan.
Video footage shared on social media showed Kajendran, 46, resisting arrest and eventually being forced into the car along with two of his aides at Nallur, 360 kilometres (225 miles) north of Colombo.
Nallur police confirmed that the Tamil National People's Front MP had been detained at the memorial, which was held near a temple where Thileepan died in 1987 after staging a hunger strike.
There was no immediate comment from his party, but Sri Lanka's main Tamil party, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), condemned the police's actions.
I condemn the arrest of Selvarajah Kajendran, MP in (Nallur) Jaffna today while exercising his right to #memorialisation, TNA spokesman Abraham Sumanthiran said on Twitter.
The detention came hours after Rajapaksa vowed at the UN General Assembly in New York to address the root causes that led to a three-decade Tamil separatist war that ended in 2009.
Rajapaksa was the top defence official at the time and played a key role in crushing the Tamil Tigers, who at the height of their power controlled one third of the island.
Commemorating the rebels is banned by the government, despite the UN Human Rights Council repeatedly urging Colombo to allow Tamils to mourn their war dead.
Sri Lanka has also resisted international calls to investigate allegations that government troops killed at least 40,000 Tamil civilians in the final months of the war.
However, on Wednesday, Rajapaksa told the UN assembly that he wanted to work towards ethnic reconciliation.
Fostering greater accountability, restorative justice, and meaningful reconciliation through domestic institutions is essential to achieve lasting peace, he said.
It is my government's firm intention to build a prosperous, stable and secure future for all Sri Lankans, regardless of ethnicity, religion, or gender.
Dozens of people waving Tamil Tiger flags demonstrated outside the UN building as Rajapaksa spoke.
In talks with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres the previous day, Rajapaksa said he was inviting Tamils abroad to join talks to ensure ethnic peace in the country.