Kyrgyzstan bans cremation of bodies of the dead

President of the Kyrgyz Republic Sadyr Japarov signed a law on amendments to the law "On Burial and Funeral Business". The corresponding message appeared on August 4 on the official website of the Kyrgyz head of state.

The purpose of the new law is to improve legal regulation in the field of funeral business and to distinguish between ritual activities and sanitary measures.

"The law provides for the exclusion of norms that allow cremation – the dedication of the body of the deceased to the fire (fire burial)," the publication says.

It is also prohibited to use crematoriums to burn the bodies of deceased people, aborted or stillborn fetuses, with the exception of sanitary thermal destruction of organs and tissues resulting from medical activities. The Law comes into force after ten days from the date of its official publication.

On June 19, the DPA news agency reported that the parliament of the German federal state of Schleswig-Holstein had introduced a new type of burial into the legislation called Reerdigung ("return to the ground"). According to Justice Minister Kerstin von der Decken, along with the traditional burial in a coffin and cremation, followed by placing the urn in the ground, the region will now use "accelerated decomposition" of the body in a special container with further burial of the remains.