Newly resettled IDPs dream of life without war
The last 18 years of Kanavathipillai Thangarasa’s life have been in constant flux. The 62-year-old man and his family have been displaced from their home on numerous occasions since 1990 by fighting in eastern Sri Lanka between government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
[Children in front of the shelters they live in in Ichchanthivu, Batticaloa District]
In 1991, his 15-year-old son disappeared while travelling to the capital, Colombo, 330km from his native village Vavunathivu in Batticaloa District. The strain of those years shows on Thangarasa’s face, which is dominated by wrinkles and heavy-set eyes.
“All we have ever wanted is peace, to live like anyone else without fear of having to run in our night clothes,” he told IRIN. Like many in his village and thousands of others in eastern Batticaloa District, Thangarasa hopes the latest phase of eviction and resettlement is the last of his lifetime.
Thousands fled and returned to villages like Vavunathivu and Vakari, further north of Batticaloa town, within a span of six months in 2007 when fighting flared up. They remain nervous about their economic futures.
“A year ago I was either living my life in a bunker or running from shell fire,” Nalathambi Shanthi, a 23-year-old woman from Vakarai, said. “Today, I am living in a house but still unemployed.”
Resettlement plans
Signs of over a decade and a half of fighting are evident. “There are still big holes in the walls of my house,” Thayabaran Premila, a 29-year-old mother of three from Uriyankettu village in Vakarai, said.
The last harvest was one of the first in recent times that allowed farmers in the newly resettled areas to cultivate without fear of war. “The last crop was good because we could sell the paddy at a high price,” 29-year-old Sinnathambi Wimalendran from Vavunathivu said, noting that rice prices were high throughout the country.
[Villagers in Vakarai stand in front of their home, which still bears the marks of fighting-pic: Sanjaya Nallaperuma]
When fighting broke out between government forces and the Tigers in early 2007, thousands of civilians fled villages like Vavunathivu and Vakarai, which were then under the control of the Tamil Tigers, to the relative safety of government controlled parts of the district.
By June 2007, government forces had chased out the Tigers from areas they held in the eastern district and a massive resettlement drive was launched. According to the Ministry of Resettlement and Disaster Relief Services, 31,200 families (104,000 people) have been resettled in the district, with 27,000 of them, including the Thangarasa family, returning to Vavunathivu.
Lagging behind
Despite the mass resettlement, areas like Vavunathivu still lag far behind the rest of the country in development, according to economist Muttukrishna Sarvananthan, the author of the recent study Economy of the Conflict Region in Sri Lanka: From Embargo to Repression, published by the East West Center, in Washington, DC.
[A bicycle repair shop in Ichchanthivu, Vavunathivu which is doing brisk business due to a lack of public transport-pic: Amantha Perera]
“Newly settled areas have a long way to go,” he told IRIN. “They lack basic amenities and infrastructure such as proper houses, roads, electricity, water supply and telecommunications. Further, human resource development is at a very low level.”
“It is very important that jobs are created to ensure long-term sustainability of these areas,” Thandi Mwape, the head of the Batticaloa sub-office of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.
Several international organisations have launched programmes targeting people involved in fishing, home gardening and food crops in the newly resettled divisions of Batticaloa.
Roads need repair and houses, most of which still bear the tell tale signs of a protracted war, need rehabilitation.
Kick-start development
Mwape said the UN and other agencies provided transitional shelters during the resettlement and that government agencies were looking at ways to reconstruct permanent houses.
The government hopes the successful completion of elections on 10 February for nine bodies in the Batticaloa District, including those overseeing Vavunathivu and Vakarai, will kick-start localised development projects.
Each of the councils was allocated Rs 2.5 million (about US$23,000) by President Mahinda Rajapaksa at the 20 March swearing-in ceremony in Colombo. “You now have to find solutions to their (voters) problems,” he told the newly elected members.
The Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP), a breakaway faction of the Tamil Tigers, won control of all nine councils at the election, the first held since 1994.
The newly resettled families are eager to get back to normal productive lives. “My village is still overgrown and looks like a jungle,” Thangarasa said. “With half broken houses, flooded roads and people still living off handouts . . . it’s time for all of this to change.” [irinnews]
Devinda Fernando said,
March 27, 2008 @ 12:43 am
Seeing is Believing. so these Diaspora will never believe it is happening because they will never return to the East to actually witness the transformation that is taking place. They have been Nay-saying from the get go. Mahinda has been in power for just about 2 years and the seeds of his promises have already begun to sprout.
Liberation, Elections, Reconstruction.
(Pssst. – For all of those who are still confused, we’re on the second part.)
LOL…Where is the Genocide you Tamil Nationalists and LTTE sympathizers all shouted so loud about? Where is the Ethnic Cleansing and the other host of Generic War crimes you alleged about the Sri Lankan government?
I eagerly await your Spin and Rhetoric in response to this.
selva said,
March 28, 2008 @ 8:03 pm
Hi Devinda, How are you. I am one of the person who write about Ethnic cleansing of Tamils in the North & East . As Dalai Lama definded it as Cultural genoside about what is happening in Tibet, the Planed Sinhalese colonization in the East also designed to make the Tamils to to loose their identity. Due to the recent way in the East people displaced in three areas. Sampoor in Trincomale district, and Vaharai and Paduvankarai in batticaloa district. Sampoor is the village where the Tamils lived densely out of whole Trinco district. During the war the people of Sampoor fleed as refugees to Batticaloa, Mannar and some to India by boat and some died while crossing the sea and many died in the war. None of the people are allowed to come back to Sampoor and the government is going to give this area to an Indian company to build a Coal power plant. Earlier another bare lane in a different area had been given and now Tamils’ ancent village. How much of money they would have spent to build their houses Temples and their heritage of their village. The Sihalese of Trincomale, almost 97% were brought here after independent are living undisturbed. Is this not ethnic cleansing. I am not blaming the Government for this but only LTTE because they only spoiled everything.
Devinda Fernando said,
March 29, 2008 @ 1:45 am
Selva,
For you to write about Ethnic Cleansing, first and foremost you actually need to familiarize yourself with the DEFINITION of Ethnic Cleansing. Let me help you here:
Dictionary Definition:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ethnic%20cleansing
Now that we are (hopefully) on the same page as to what Ethnic Cleansing is, let us proceed to look at an ACTUAL incident of Ethnic Cleansing:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expulsion_of_Muslims_from_Jaffna
Oh wait… this looks like it was not the Sri Lankan Govt but,…wait,….. Drumroll please, (Brrrrrrrrrrrrrr)….. Your Saviors of the Tamil people – the LTTE.
Now lets look at the other Drivel you have written and analyse this using proper logic.
***the Planed Sinhalese colonization in the East also designed to make the Tamils to to loose their identity.***
Forced Colonization? – Last time I checked the country is Sri Lanka, and ALL CITIZENS (Tamil, Muslim, Sinhalese or any other ethnic group) are FREE to live and move anywhere on the WHOLE ISLAND. Stop using weasel words like ‘Colonization’ when once again they do not apply.
Let me ask you something, I am Sinhalese, I plan to buy land in Vakarai soon,…am I colonizing the East? Is this something I am not allowed to do? And If Sinhalese move to the East is considered Colonization, then Tamils who move to the South, are they ‘Colonizing’ Sinhala lands? You make me laugh when you make ludicrous statements like Colonization of Tamil Land. Land belongs to the person who holds the Legal Deed not an Ethnic Group as the Communalists would have you believe.
***During the war the people of Sampoor fleed as refugees to Batticaloa, Mannar and some to India by boat and some died while crossing the sea and many died in the war. None of the people are allowed to come back to Sampoor and the government is going to give this area to an Indian company to build a Coal power plant. ***
This is a war that the LTTE started, but it seems you hold the GoSL responsible for what happened to those people. Your statement is also factless, vague, and rife with conjecture. Use actual numbers and be specific otherwise I can only assume you are lying or exaggerating to prove a point. All IDPs ARE allowed to return, if you have any proof to the contrary please provide it. Some may not return to the EXACT same areas they left for a variety of reasons, but none being what you allege about Ethnic Cleansing. And regarding your Power Plant construction; you do realize that the Power plant is going to bring economy, commerce, and jobs to (Tamil)people of that area? Its called development kiddo, something the LTTE never did. If some villagers have to be relocated so that development can commence then so be it,… for the greater good of the people in the East. The majority Tamils will be the ones to benefit from the developments in the East. The tax money and commerce will build schools, hospitals, roads, and utilities. Now is that the goal of a government ‘Ethnic Cleansing’ a minority? Stop thinking like a Communalist along the lines of ethnicity alone.
And regarding your comment about Tamils losing their Identity? Have they lost their identity in India (Tamil Nadu) or in Canada or UK and Malaysia where other significant percentages live?
Vellahla said,
March 29, 2008 @ 6:36 am
When a person or family from Rochester, New York moves to Hicksville, Arizona it’s not called colonization but relocation. See how biased and radicalized you have become in your pursuit of justice and “eelam”.
IT IS THE INHERENT RIGHT OF ANYBODY IN SRI LANKA TO MOVE AND RELOCATE HIS FAMILY ANYWHERE ON THE ISLAND. THIS IS NOT CULTURAL GENOCIDE NOR COLONIZATION.
Currently, the only place where Sri Lankans cannot go to is the “de facto” Eelam state that still begs from the SL Govt. for monthly quotas of food and medicine and also begs from you diarsepora for money.
Grow up… Majority of the REAL problems faced by Tamils in the North and East are common to people of all ethnic communities of Sri Lanka.
selva said,
March 30, 2008 @ 10:48 pm
Hi Devinda,
Please go to the web sites below and see what I wrote is right or wrong.
The Indian company when they were asked to shift their projedt to Sampoor they refused saying it is very difficult to move the plants from the harbour to this location. The reason is they need to cross about bays by ferries. There are lots of government lands and forest in Trinco. The place allocated before was in the north and they don’t have to cross any bay. Even after the plant started working, to transport the coal either they will have to transport it through this way or by barges through the sea. Even though it is going to be very costly the ethnic cleansing is more important than money for the government.
Evacuating the Muslims from north by the Tigers is definitely ethnic cleansing and Evacuating Sampoor is more than that because it is done by a Government.
thesouthasian.org/archives/2007/resettlement_in_trincomalee_ba_1.html
transcurrents.com/tamiliana/archives/189
federalidea.com/focus/archives/250
selva said,
March 30, 2008 @ 10:53 pm
Devinda there is a correction to reach sampoor from the harbour they will have to will have to cross about 5 bays by ferries.