Fastest resettlement drive in history

By Shanika SRIYANANDA

Remote villages in Mullaitivu, Kilinochchi, Vavuniya and Jaffna, which were full of rubbles and deadly mines, are now busy townships with new buildings being constructed.

Displaced civilians in welfare camps in Vavuniya, came in batches, after these lands were demined and were given infrastructure facilities to start life afresh.

Without the deadly sounds of explosions, for the first time in the past three decades, people in the entire Northern region live peacefully.

Within one year, of the 290,000 civilians displaced due to the battle against the LTTE, over 275,000 have been resettled in their own villages.

Aiyadorai Gunawathi (60) of Vellankulam, 40 kms off Vavuniya, has fresh hopes for the future, having returned home from the welfare centre in Vavuniya.

Back home in a safe environment, free of deadly mines, they have already started ploughing their once fertile lands.

Herded from place to place by the LTTE and having escaped in May 2009 they were sheltered in welfare centres till they returned home. They have built their shattered homes with the help of the Government and the support of the soldiers.

With true peace now in the Northern region after many years, people in the resettled villages have started life with improved facilities.

“We thank the soldiers for helping us to build these houses”, Gunawathi said.

Though the villagers have been resettled in these villages, they are still being given food assistance by the Government.

Nedunkerni town, a strategic location for the LTTE for several years, has become yet another busy township where business booms and people’s lives are returning to normal with more displaced people returning home. In his makeshift boutique, a teenager Anandaraja sells everything, vegetables, essential food items, soft drinks and chocolates.

Hospitals and schools

Although the soft drinks are not chilled, they have a fairly good demand. Anandaraja began schooling again after they returned to the Kulavisuddan village from the welfare centre nine months ago.

With soldiers moving around frequently, talking to them in a friendly manner, helping them in their day-to-day activities and guarding their townships and villages from dawn to dusk, the young Northern generation is now in touch with these people whom the LTTE had described as evil.

For the first time, most of the villages which had been in the ‘dark’ for years, are connected to the National Grid.

With hospitals renovated and schools functioning regularly, life for these civilians in resettled villages has become more comfortable than earlier.

Most of the villagers want the soldiers to stay on. “We want soldiers to be with us. When they are here we know the LTTE cannot come back. We want to protect our children and provide a good future for them. Today, even in the middle of the night, we can go on the road as the Army is there to protect us.

“Those days, after 6 pm, we lived in bunkers”, they said. Soldiers helped the villagers to construct houses, clear abandoned land for cultivation, clean wells, repair schools and hospitals and remove earth bunds built by the LTTE .

The Competent Authority, Resettlement and Security Forces Commander Wanni, Maj. Gen. Kamal Gunaratne said there can be no other example in the world other than the resettlement drive in Sri Lanka which has resettled over 90 percent of the displaced civilians in less than a year. President Mahinda Rajapaksa has taken a keen intrest in the whole process.

“We faced many difficulties in making the resettlement drive a success. The Army is involved in resettling the IDPs. We first faced the challenge of clearing the mines buried by the LTTE in a large swathe of land in the North. Then, providing infrastructure facilities for the resettled IDPs and the third challenge was restoring their livelihood”, he said.

Of the 48 IDP centres only five remain to shelter nearly 20,000 IDPs, who are waiting to return home once de-mining is completed.

He said nearly 95 percent of de-mining is carried out by the Army.

The Government is providing infrastructure facilities such as new roads, hospitals, schools, electricity and distributing seed paddy, fertiliser and fishing gear to restart their livelihoods.

Together with the 1,158 IDPs remaining in Jaffna, the number of IDPs remaining is 18,380, the Ministry of Resettlement said.

According to the Ministry of Resettlement, only 4,011 IDPs remain at the Kadirgamar Relief Centre while 5,612 IDPs are at the Anandacoomaraswami Zone 1. IDPs numbering 2,327, 2,569 and 2,703 remain in Ramanathan, Arunachalam and Zone 4 in the Menik Farm relief village. Of them 11,780 IDPs are free outside the camps.

Original places

The government has so far resettled 212,094 IDPs belonging to 65,271 families in their original places.

In addition, the Government released 27,652 IDPs on the ground of medical, humanitarian, elderly (over 60), on Court orders, foreign passport holders, university students, orphanages, religious and pregnant women. With this number, the government has released and resettled 239,746.

Ministry Secretary M. B. Dissanayake said that those who have been resettled are provided with facilities for schooling, healthcare and transport. He said that a majority of the remaining IDPs had been originally from the Mullaitivu and Pudukudirippu DS Divisions and their resettlement has been delayed due to mines in those areas. The Secretary said that they would be resettled within 72 hours once de-mining is completed.

He said that this process will be completed within two to three months thus completing the resettlement process. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), since January 2009, 396 sqkm have been cleared in the North, while an estimated 552 sqkms in all five Northern districts are still littered with mines. The Mine Action Group (MAG) is de-mining the three districts of Mannar, Vavuniya and Mullaitivu, a part of the former conflict-zone, according to IRIN, the humanitarian news and analysis service of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Community Liaison Officer for Mag, Philippa Copland said, effective de-mining programs had helped to keep the number of injuries low.

“A very effective de-mining program is in place,” Copland said. The areas are surveyed and de-mined before the IDPs return.