Report from Jaffna: Long road to recovery, say returnees
by IRIN News
Thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) who have left camps in Sri Lanka’s north say they are struggling to claim back their lives even as the government implements a programme to support them.
Inside the makeshift home of a returnee family in Jaffna district in Sri Lanka's north
In recent weeks, some 140,000 people have left the camps, according to officials. Most have returned to their places of origin, including the war-torn districts of Jaffna, Vavuniya, Mannar and Mullaitivu in Sri Lanka’s Northern Province. In addition, people are being resettled mostly in areas previously under the control of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
“I am happy to be out of the camp. The [central] government has given us some basic things, like several accessories to cook our meals. But we’re still trying to get back to normal,” said Rajini, who recently returned to Jaffna district.
Her home was outside the district, but the area was heavily mined, forcing her to live with her parents in a new house built by family members using pieces of wood, haphazardly-arranged roofing sheets and plastic covers.
“There is an urgent need for things such as wood to expand our houses, which are small … Currently, there are more than 10 of us in these small living quarters,” Rajini, who asked not to be identified by her full name, told IRIN.
Returnees in Jaffna district
“Awakening of the North”
To help resettlement efforts, President Mahinda Rajapaksa has appointed a task force under the “Vadakkin Vasantham” (Awakening of the North) programme, including the governor, military officials, ministers and other officials.
“We have done the resettlement under a master plan. We have not just resettled people for the sake of resettling them,” GA Chandrasiri, governor of the Northern Province, told IRIN in an exclusive interview.
“We have taken many steps to make sure that resettled IDPs can live a normal life in their resettled areas,” he said.
Under the programme, the central government is providing each resettled family with 12 to 18 sheets of roofing, 10 bags of cement, materials to build fences, squatting pans for latrines, dry rations for six months and kitchen utensils, he said.
The government is also dispensing 350,000 rupees (US$3,055) to rebuild collapsed houses and 50,000 rupees ($436) for partly damaged houses.
“The government of Sri Lanka is working with its different agencies and also with other non-governmental entities for the common goal of returning normalcy in the north. For example, there are no fishing restrictions in place in the north. People are free to continue their livelihoods,” he said.
Mixed response
The IDPs leaving camps are transferred to transit points such as schools or churches, and then make their way to their places of origin or new resettlement areas, according to local NGO sources working with the returnees.
Many are accompanied by dozens of other family members who cannot return to their homes because the areas have still to be cleared of mines laid during the conflict. This means homes are overcrowded and resources stretched, according to local NGOs in Jaffna.
Despite government efforts, there are mixed feelings among the mostly ethnic Tamil IDPs who have been resettled or returned in the past month.
“It is so good to be out of the camps. I have suffered a lot,” said A Thirumaran, who was newly resettled in Mannar district. “Now there is some freedom at last. Although there are many painful memories, it is very good to be back.”
Returnee KR Siva from Jaffna said he was looking for a job, but finding it difficult. “The government gave certain household amenities for some families, but not for all families. For example, I have not even got a cent from the government to restart a livelihood,” he said.
IRIN (Integrated Regional Information Networks) is part of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, but its services are editorially independent.
1 Comments
It is known the International Community made available very large sums of money recently for the rehabilitation of the IDPs – whose livelihood and homes were destroyed by the so-called War. If so how is that most of these innocent people are made to wonder penniless and without proper housing? The funds were given to ensure the IDPs and war-affected are helped.
It is time the IC – and local social interests (notably the JVP) – enquire how much was received, how it was expended, name and address of beneficiaries and so on must be published in the public domain. This is admittedly difficult in a country and environment where Kleptocracy is not only practiced by the high and the mighty but is considered fashionable and as something indulged by the powerful and the influential.
In a society where vultures (both Sinhala and Tamil) have made it a profession to extract large sums of money from the interned - merely to allow them to go to their own homes/villages an enquiry outside of Lankan officialdom is absolutely necessary. It is sad this is happening in a country that only a few decades ago was known for decency and civilized governance.
Look at that grinning pole-vaulting rogue and ex-convict who thinks the people of this country are waiting to make him President. This near mendicant who was walking the streets of Colombo in 1993 did not even have a proper place to live in. When he was made minister - among other acts of high dishonesty - he engineered the robbing of large sums of money set aside for those below the poverty line.
Hundreds of thousands of bogus accounts were created and funds diverted to the shock of those honest officials in the line. His boss of the time certainly knew that but chose to ignore because they were all busy fingering the till. He used these 7 figure sums to buy banks, build palaces in the Hills and send his children to Australia providing them mansions and fat bank accounts there.
That he is allowed to walk the streets without being stoned (or the Vermin treatment at SLRC with hot red coloured urine) – or move in his limousines – is a terrible blot on the decent people of this country. Only when this happens other rogues will take precautions.
ISS