SAILAN MUSLIM FOUNDATION REPRESENTATIVES VISIT TO PUTTALAM

JAFFNA SITUATION REPORT ON MUSLIM IDP’S

It is unfortunate that to this day, the situation of Muslim IDP’s languishing in refugee camps remains unsettled. It is now two decades since they were displaced from their homes in Jaffna as a result of ethnic cleansing by the LTTE in 1990. The long awaited liberation of the North in May 2009 has however done little to ensure their resettlement.

As a team from Sailan Muslim Foundation recently found out during a fact finding mission to Puttalam District where most of the IDPs are settled, both the Government and INGOs have got other priorities, namely resettling the Tamil refugees from the Wanni (Mullaitivu and Vavuniya Districts) displaced as a result of the final thrust against LTTE terrorism in March-May 2009 and the reconstruction of the war-battered North and East.

The plight of the Northern Muslim refugees who had been displaced earlier seems to have been all but forgotten. Of the 15,000 families displaced as a result of the ethnic cleansing in 1990, as many as 12,000 families settled in refugee camps in the Puttalam District. These IDPs were virtually penniless when they arrived in Puttalam after their expulsion by the LTTE in October 1990. On that fateful day of October 23, 1990, the Muslims living in Jaffna town were given, on pain of death,  a mere two hours to depart, leaving all their valuables and savings behind which were appropriated by the LTTE. The Muslims of the other parts of the Northern Province were give a 48-hour ultimatum and they too were compelled to leave their savings and valuables behind. Thus when these refugees arrived in Puttalam, they were a destitute lot, forced to seek the assistance of government and private aid groups. Although many more or less accepted their lot living in these refugee camps at subsistence level and with immense hardships to themselves and their families, they now feel that it is high time they returned to their homes in Jaffna and started life anew.

Sufiyan Maulavi, the head of the People’s Secretariat which looks into the interests of the IDPs in Puttalam informed us that their request to address the plight of the Jaffna refugees has fallen on the deaf ears of both the Government and the INGOs, despite the fact that these IDPs unlike the recently displaced Wanni refugees have suffered for nearly twenty years. The total number of refugees at the time of the influx in 1990 was about 65,000 while the local population numbered only around 60,000. Thus virtually overnight the total population of Puttalam doubled. This of course created immense hardship not only for the immigrants, but also for the resident population. For instance, the facilities and infrastructure that catered to the then resident population was stretched to the limit. Competition for jobs also impacted on the local populace and all this led to a number of concomitant social problems as well. Today, the situation is far worse as the migrant population too has increased over the years. Now that the war is finally over, reason and commonsense dictate that that the IDPs should return. After all, overstaying one’s welcome is not a prudent thing to do. Besides, many of these IDPs long to go back home and live the kind of life they lived before their expulsion without being a burden on anybody.

Today, unfortunately, with the emphasis placed on resettling the Wanni refugees, the plight of the Muslim refugees who were displaced by the LTTE has become a forgotten story. When approached by the Peoples Secretariat, INGOs such as UNDP, UNICEF Etc, frequently respond that they have no funds allocated for the resettlement of the older refugees. As equally disconcerting is the efforts led by the state, to focus only on the Wanni refugees and not those from Jaffna who have suffered much more and over a longer period.

Meanwhile, the People’s Secretariat, despite the limited resources at its disposal, has done its part to alleviate the situation with the help of some interested groups, among them, Sailan Muslim Foundation, Law Society and Al-Bashar Organisation. Nevertheless there is much preliminary groundwork to be done before the IDPs can be resettled in a meaningful manner. It was found that of 57 house owners who went to Jaffna in an assessment tour sponsored by Sailan Muslim Foundation, 17 house owners could not even identify the boundaries of their homes as these had been neglected and taken over by encroaching vegetation and weeds over a period of twenty years. The GS has already verified the claims of 40 house owners and accepted them. Although the papers are acceptable to the GS, for some 185 families who are keen to resettle at the earliest, the land would have to be re-surveyed and proper houses built. The extent of this land known as Pommaiveli Thitam is around 2 acres. The owners would however have to live in them while rebuilding them. This is no easy task. For instance, toilets and water facilities are urgently needed for these houses before they could become habitable. Thus there is an urgent need for funding the rebuilding of these homes as the householders themselves who have all this past 20 years eked out a living at subsistence level are not in a position to meet the costs involved.

We also gathered that the land by the side of the sea owned by the neighbourhood Mosque which is known as Mankumban Sarty has sufficient space to build around 50 houses which would suffice to accommodate those persons displaced from Moor Street who were earlier homeless. We also discovered that there was another vacant land that could be developed as a scheme for homeless IDPs, but this has to be purchased at a cost of about Rupees six (6) million.

All this however requires funding. We found that the Peoples Secretariat has no funds except the little financial help they receive from individuals and their own contributions. Despite this lack of funds, it is heartening to note that they have done a substantial amount of work. For instance they have vocational training institutes for sewing and carpentry as well as computer classes, a library and even a counseling centre. They also provide free tuition facilities to GCE O/L and A/L students. In fact a student who had entered the Engineering faculty as a result of their good work was awarded a trophy in our presence when we were invited to grace a prize-giving ceremony organized by the Secretariat.