IDPs heave a sigh of relief:

Resettlement accelerated

by Shanika SRIYANANDA in Menik farm

‘Freedom’ gives them hope courage and much more. Sandwiched between life and terror for many years, they yearned for true freedom. Herded from one village to another they miraculously escaped death despite the barrage of bullets flying over their heads. Their attempts to flee were blurred in the horizon with terrorism getting harsh. But, braving all odds they ran for life until they concluded their ‘mission impossible’ on May 17, this year, when they stepped into the land of freedom.

The ‘survival of the fittest’ commenced with the exodus of refugees through the huge earth bunds of the LTTE and the Nandikandal lagoon.

Over 280,000 people carrying only their hopes begged for life from the government, which started a humanitarian mission to break the iron gates of the open prison of ruthless Prabhakaran.

Four months have passed. The internally displaced people of Vanni sheltered in welfare centres in Vavuniya now have fresh hopes. The happiness is written on their faces. They who faced many a challenge in life now look forward to pick up the lost threads in their lives.

Living on government rations, now what these people clamour for is ‘freedom’. They want to stand up on their own feet. They want to walk on their own soil and they want to breathe air in their own lands.

Most importantly, they do not want to be called as ‘IDPs’ any more. Being government servants and wealthy businessmen or even ordinary labourers all these people know they can rise from the ashes.

Sivakosala and Navarasa with their baby waiting to go home

“We wholeheartedly thank the government and the military for saving our lives. But what these people want is to go home”, Shivendran a teacher at the Kadirgamar School said.

He is now happy as he was released since he is a government teacher and his wife is expecting a baby in December. A resident of Mankulam, he taught at the Periyamkulam Primary School. He got injured while trying to escape on May 17. He was treated at the Gurunagar Hospital. Later he joined his wife in the Kadiragamar Relief Village. Shivandran’s left hand ceased functioning after the injury.

Reluctant to recall the agony under the LTTE he said: “Oh... it’s terrible. All of us lived in bunkers. We are happy here as there is no fighting and terror. We have enough food. We live peacefully and do not want the LTTE back”, he said.

Like Shivandran, the majority of government servants and their families have been released from the relief centres.

Nineteen-year-old Sivakosala and Kovinda Navarasa (24) were asked to report to the office to finalise their release. Their four-month old son Jerusan was the reason for the early release. The government has decided to release all families who have small children.

Navarasa’s life was under threat as the LTTE’s manpower was shrinking. The only way out for young girls and boys in Vanni was marriage. But at the last stages of the battle they dragged away even married couples.

Thereafter pregnancy became the only way for women to escape from the LTTE. Sivakosala and Navarasa of Oddusudan Mullaithivu were the best proof.

“They came after me. My parents hid me under a bunker but when the situation became worse we did not have an option other than marriage. Before they abducted me I got married and we both lived in a bunker while my old parents were living in the tent.

Then she got pregnant and the LTTE never came to take me until we fled Puthumathalan”, the young husband said. He is planning to do odd jobs and fishing in Trincomalee.

Rasi Jayapalan is a priest who was released with his two sons. “ We are going to stay with my brother-in-law in Vavuniya”. He lived in an underground bunker in Sudandrampuram. He was released because his mother-in-law was over 60-years and he was a priest.

Shivandran

Brigadier J.B. Galgamuwe, Zonal Commander of the Ramanadan Relief Village said there were over 50 blocks with over 74,000 IDPs but the number has reduced to 46,000. “We are sending people home everyday. They are now resettled in Mannar and Jaffna. Last week, people in Nallur and Jaffna town were sent back”, he said.

The Ramanathanpuram Relief Village spans over 373 acres and it has pre-schools, schools, a base hospital, medical centres, a vocational training centre, co-op shops, bank and communication facilities. According to Brig. Galgamuwe, the relief centre is sheltering the last batches of the displaced people from Puthumathalan and this is the largest relief centre in Vavuniya.

The displaced people in these camps do not ask for more. They who suffered and were forced to live with minimum facilities ‘demand’ very little as they know that the Government will do more for them in the future. “Water is one major problem but we are satisfied with the things we are getting”, said Kanthi who was in the queue with plastic cans to collect her quota of drinking water. A middle-aged person was assigned to keep a record of water issued to them.

All the relief centres are provided with drinking water pumped from the Malwatu Oya and water from Kalaru was also supplied for washing purposes.

Year end the target Maj. Gen. Kamal Gunaratne, the Competent Authority and the Security Forces Commander Vanni, is confident that over 50 per cent of the total number of remaining displaced people in relief centres would be resettled by the end of this year. “Less than 220,000 people are now in these centres. The Government has accelerated the resettlement program and nearly 2,000 people are going to their own areas, daily”, he said. With expediting the resettlement process, resettling all the displaced people in the Eastern region was concluded last week. Over 27,000 people have been selected to be resettled in Jaffna. At a ceremony held at the Rice Bowl Mannar, over 1,200 people displaced in the area were resettled. The people were given basic requirements to start a new life and the farmers who want to commence paddy cultivation will be given Rs. 4,000 each to prepare paddy lands for cultivation. They will also be given seed paddy and fertilizer free-of-charge. Meanwhile, another 3,000 people displaced in Vavuniya, Chundikulam and Thunukkai were resettled last week. “The de-mining process has been accelerated with the assistance of the Sri Lanka Army which deployed over 600 specially trained de-miners. We intend to resettle the displaced people as soon as possible but de-mining in these areas need to be done carefully as we have found the LTTE had buried thousands of AP mines in these areas”, Maj. Gen. Gunaratne said.

Kanthi’s native place is Chilaw. She was married to a clerk and then came to Kilinochchi, with two small boys aged two and four. They were chased away to Puthumathalan. “ Most of the days we had nothing to eat. We lived in a bunker and fed the boys with boiled rice with dhal.

They did not allow us to cross the lagoon. Finally, all the people got together and crossed the lagoon as we knew that soldiers were there to save us. But they started shooting at us”, she said.

A young mother pushed her two small children into the Nandikandal lagoon with a tyre to cling onto while the merciless Tigers were trying to stop them with gunfire.

The two children who underwent the traumatic experience are now smiling happily.

Kishan goes to the pre-school and Sandeep still learns to walk and talk. The family will soon go home as Kanthi’s husband is a Government servant.

According to Brig. Galgamuwe all the displaced persons in the centre will be able to go home once their background is considered.

“We have to give priority for de-mining and providing shelters. Once this is sorted out we can release them immediately,” he said. Pregnant women with their husbands, Government servants, university students and elderly people over 60 have already been released from the camps. Steps have been taken to ease the congestion in the camps before the monsoon. Brig. Galgamuwe said over 7,000 displaced people will be sent to Neriyakulam.

The relief camps in Menik Farm are preparing to face the monsoon with developing and repairing the drainage systems, providing additional polythene covers, improving water tanks and repairing tents.

Brig. Galgamuwe said frequent complaints he received from the people is lack of water.

The problem was solved last week by increasing 400,000 litres to 700,000 litres per day.

“It is easy to work with these people because they are decent and educated. They know the efforts taken by the Government to look after them. They cooperate with us well”, he said.

Mahesh Ravindran (40) and his wife had been ‘imprisoned’ in Puthikudirippu since 2002 from the day the couple with their three children visited her ancestral house in Shivanagar, Puthikudirippu. The parents complain about their children’s education.

The family is happy to go to Trincomalee, where their parents are waiting to welcome them after so many years.

“My children are good in their studies and I want to see them schooling once we go there”, Ravindran said.

Yowanna Yoganadan (40) too is going to Trincomalee, his wife’s home town. Being a fisherman, he and his family of three children couldn’t return to Trincomalee from Chundikulam since 2002. Displaced due to tsunami, the family was displaced several times as the LTTE chased them from time to time. Once they were used as a human shield by the Tigers to halt the military offensive.

“We don’t want the LTTE again. It was a very dark period in our lives. Tamils lost lots of people.

The Tigers dragged us to the stone age”, Yoganadan’s voice was strong and indicated the anger that was brewing inside him.

Touring around these camps will make one aware how happily they are preparing to return home. People of Vanni who crossed the Nandikandal lagoon with empty hands, have big dreams today.

On our way to Vavuniya, over 21 buses full of displaced people were plying along the A-9 road.

They are heading to Jaffna to begin a new life in a new era.

The displaced people were seen carrying gunny bags full of rice, dhal, sugar and flour the rations distributed by the Government and the INGOs. Rajendran, who was released from the Ramanathan relief centre, is returning to Jaffna after seven years.

The 62-year-old father is to start a new life while his two sons, who were forcibly recruited by the LTTE, are being rehabilitated.

He said he knew the family would be re-united soon and he wanted to start life anew.