Sri Lanka war-displaced struggle to resume lives

(Reuters, Thu, Dec 24, 2009 ) - VAVUNIYA – Thousands of ethnic Tamils displaced during Sri Lanka’s war have gone home again, but are finding basic services and infrastructure lacking despite a massive government post-war resettlement program.

The government has gradually been resettling around 300,000 ethnic minority Tamil people, most displaced in the final phase of the army offensive against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which ended with the Tiger’s defeat in May after a 25-year war.

Various foreign aid and human rights groups, as well as U.N. officials, have criticized conditions in the camps and have urged the government, which needs foreign help and investment to boost Sri Lanka’s post-war economy, to resettle the Tamils quickly.

According to government data, it had resettled 127,352 people in their areas of origin as of Wednesday. Over 140,000 are yet to be resettled.

At one point over 280,000 displaced people were being kept under guard in northern Vavuniya, 260 km (161 miles) away from Colombo, inside cramped military-run camps.

Many have now been resettled in their original home areas, after the government determined there was not a threat of land mines. But those Reuters spoke to say the conditions leave much to be desired.

“We don’t have drinking water or toilet facilities,” said Muttaiah Sivayoganathan, a 53-year-old father of three in the colony of Parannattakal, 10 km north from Vavuniya town.

“Backside forest has been used as our toilet.” he said, referring to woods behind his house.

“I don’t have any money to resume farming. But still we were asked by the government to build a house on our own land temporarily before proper resettlement.” More …

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Tamil Eelam Heroes' Day 2009:
Videos & photos

McDonagh on Sri Lanka
at the British Labor Party
conference

"Next time you want to buy underwear from Marks & Spencer, you want to buy a t-shirt from Next, you want to go on a holiday of a lifetime in a beautiful island off the coast off India - Do you really want to spend your money on a government that chooses to lock 300,000 people up behind barbed-wire.

A country that is the most dangerous in the world to be a journalist.

A country where we can see on Channel 4 News, young men, naked and bound shot at close range.

Is that what we want for our money, for our democracy?

I ask you to not only support the emergency resolution on Sri Lanka but to use your money and not prop up that government,"

Damilvany Gnanakumar
witnessed the bloody conflict
from a Vanni hospital