|
|
|
  |
| Sunday, 13 March 2005 |
 |
|
 |
Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
|
Revisiting Jaffna's Moor Town : Coming home? Once upon a time, Moor Town was a flourishing suburb in the Jaffna peninsula. But the ethnic conflict saw the Muslims being chased out of the North and Moor Town was reduced to a ghost city in the ensuing years. Sunday Observer staffer, Ranga Jayasuriya visits this once vibrant town to see how the returnees are coping with life in their devastated neighbourhood.
Ruins of this Muslim suburb are symbolic of the destruction the ethnic warfare has caused. This is the evidence of the grave mistake which saw the mass eviction of 100,000 Muslims from Jaffna and the Vanni, and disrupted the political fabric of this country, with the 20-year ethnic conflict. Destruction maybe common in a war-battered place like Jaffna. But the wreck that was once Moor Town, where over 5,000 Muslim families lived, is unbelievable. And the destruction has far deeper ramifications, than what meets the eye. Nearly 300 families, who, following the Ceasefire, returned to their destroyed home town are yet to get over the ordeal of forced eviction carried out at a mere two-hour notice. Moor Town was once a flourishing trading place. The moorish identity of the suburb was well established. There were 13 mosques, all of which were ransacked after the Muslims fled the town. Relations between the Muslim minority and the Tamil majority were smooth, though there were occasional hiccups during the post- independent era. But the outbreak of war changed everything. Miyath Kiran's ancestors had lived in Jaffna, for over six centuries. Coming to Sri Lanka as Arab merchants, his forefathers settled down near Nallur, before moving to 'Moor Town', some two centuries ago. Miyath's father, Ilan Kiran, became a Communist Party chief in Jaffna and was a famous poet and writer. Kiran Senior died in Colombo in the late eighties, while writing the saga of the Jaffna Muslims, dating back to the 14th Century. And with his demise, the history of the Jaffna Muslims also came to an abrupt end, a few years later. On that fateful day, in October, 23, 1990 to be exact, the Tigers ordered the Muslims out of Jaffna and gave them two hours to do so. Miyath's neighbour, Razik Jiffry was 16-years- old, when the Tigers who took control of the city announced that all the Muslims should converge at Osmania College grounds and the ordered them out. Jiffry and his family jumped into a lorry transporting civilians to Vavuniya; from there they moved to Negombo and later to Panadura, where his family lived in a rented house for the rest of their period of exile. It took twelve long years and a ceasefire between the Government and the LTTE, for Jiffry's family to return to their home town. But his initial joy of going home, soon turned bitter, when he found Moor Town, destroyed beyond recognition. The town was unlivable. Walking through the destroyed and looted houses, lining the cross lanes of Moor Town, Jiffry points to the ruins of houses of his former friends and neighbours. "This is like another tsunami. But the difference is, our troubles have gone unnoticed" Most of his old friends and neighbours did not choose to return. But 300 families have returned to, Moor Town, since the A9 road was opened under the truce agreement. Jiffry wants his neighbours to return to Moor Town, but questions as to where they would live, if they came back, are left unanswered, as their old houses have been looted and ransacked during their exile. Abdul Cader Zaruk recalls the fateful day, when the entire Muslim population was ordered to leave Jaffna. "LTTE cadres came to every house. They body-searched everyone of us before we got into the bus to make sure that we would not carry any jewellery or money". In the days to follow, Muslims in the Vanni too faced the same fate. Some 100,000 Muslims were evicted from the North-East during the last quarter of 1990. Over 20,000 Muslims who fled Jaffna, moved to refugee camps in Puttalam, Kandy, Anuradhapura, Aluthgama, Negombo and Kurunegala. Their suffering didn't end at the refugee camps. Facilities at the camps were minimal. Employment opportunities were scarce. Some turned to their extended families and settled down in Western, Wayamba and Central provinces. Zaruk's family settled down in Puttalam. Last year, he brought his sixteen year-old-daughter on her first visit after 13 years, to her home town, Jaffna. But, she was not impressed with the city's war battered infrastructure. She asked Zaruk: "Is this Jaffna? How did you live here?". Zaruk, now shifts between Puttalam, where his family has settled down and Jaffna, where he is doing a small time business. After the Muslims left and the civil war was intensified, tough times were to come to Jaffna. Soon after the failure of peace talks and the unilateral breach of the ceasefire by the Tigers, the government of the day took draconian steps, and left the civilians, high and dry. Sanctions were imposed on all essential items. Shortage of essential food items brought the entire population to the brink of starvation. Aerial bombing and shelling killed scores of civilians. During these difficult days, people ransacked and looted houses owned by Muslims. They looted furniture, home appliances and removed roofing sheets, doors, windows and anything which could be sold, in a desperate search for money, which was hard to come by. There was no source of employment. Ruins of Osmania College, the premier school at one time in Moor Town symbolises the destruction that the twenty-year-old war has caused. Once a school which conducted classes from kindergarten to Advanced Level in all streams, Osmania College has now been reduced to a single building. The rest is in ruins. The school had 1,800 students in 1990. Now It conducts classes up to the Ordinary Levels for 200 students on the ground floor of the crumbling main building. The principal complains of the dearth of teachers and facilities. He has requested funding to rebuild the school. |
|
| News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security
| Produced by Lake House |
Walking
through the narrow, dilapidated roads of Moor Town, situated within the city
limits of Jaffna, all you can see is the wreckage of the once comfortable
homes and mosques. 
