KAMALIKA PIERIS
Rehabilitation and
resettlement would help to ‘erase’ the Eelam victory. Keerawella observed in
2013 that despite the practical constraints the government was able to send
most of the IDPs back to their villages within a period of one and a half
years. In 2013 the media reported that
1299 families in Valikaman North had been resettled and that 12,000 were counseled and reintegrated into
society, some have entered universities. We have even started resettling second
generation of IDPs the government said in 2013.Sri Lanka Army said in 2014 that 98% of the IDP displaced due to
the war had been re-settled.
The inmates were sent
to their families. Most of them have
families. We reintegrate people only
when have an address of known relatives. We locate them and then only we
reintegrate them to society, said the army.
This is being done by the military intelligence. We provide them with
the information given by the inmate. So, they are going back to the people they
know. There is no case of any individual being released without background
being checked, said the army.
These individuals were not just cast adrift, observed Michael Roberts.
The process of resettlement was organized with the cooperation of International Organization for Migration
(IOM). IOM has been heavily involved in
financially supporting the resettlement of civilian IDPs from the Menik Farm
and other camps. IOC has been a conduit for monies channelled from the
governments of USA, Australia, Netherlands, Norway, Japan and UK. Australia
provided funds through AusAid. Department of Immigration and Citizenship,
Australia (DIAC) became one of the agencies working through IOM.
The returnees were
helped to re-start their lives. Most were in Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu
districts. Most were working as laborers, machine operators, carpenters and so
on. Commissioner General of Rehabilitation stated that the government had given
loans up to Rs 250,000 at low interest, to 1800 LTTE cadres for approved self
employment projects. Payment was through
a bank.
Local banks were asked
to grant low interest loans with grace periods and a repayment period of ten
years.” Arrangements had also been made to
get them employment in Middle East. IOM
used donor funds to provide the returnees with equipment and tool kits. The
private sector gave three wheelers.
UN Special Rapporteur
on Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) was satisfied with the
work on resettlement of IDPs in north and east. Not everybody agreed with this
assessment.
A study conducted by
de Croos (2011) explored the subjective experiences of 15 former detainees. It
showed an alarming picture’, said Roberts. Several stated that they had
received little training. Not all had received IDs and everyone had been
instructed to seek permission if they travelled beyond their village All
ex-detainees stated that the CID and Army visited their homes at least
once a week or once every fortnight and checked on their whereabouts and
details.”
Groundviews (2012) spoke of the bitter end to Menik Farm. Throughout August and
September 2012, people from Puthukudiyiruppu and Maritimepattu Divisions in the
Mullaitivu district, who had been living in Menik Farm, were dumped in schools
and roadsides to find their own way home. Home” was mainly shrub jungles, open
air spaces under trees and destroyed houses with doors, windows, roofing, and
toilet equipment were looted. Some had to seek shelter in churches and schools,
as their home” was simply not habitable. Another group we met had been
compelled to stay in a small church as the Army was occupying their land.
Clearly, the government which had waited for more than three years to send
these people home, were now in a might hurry to send them home, without even
clearing up jungles.
Yahapalana also disputed the rosy position given by the Mahinda
Rajapaksa government. There are a lot of things that we ought to do in the
North and East especially and what we have done so far is building roads and
infrastructure. But there is a lot more that we need to do to ensure these
people are able to get on their own feet and survive.” Said Yahapalana.
In
2016 Sampanthan observed that there were 31 welfare camps in Jaffna
district and 936 families of 3260 members.
682 families did not own land or houses. In
2018 it was observed that in the Jaffna District 34,248 families were
temporarily resettled in their own land and 721 families were yet to be
resettled from 29 welfare centers. A further 8,987 families needing
resettlement were living with friends and relatives.
Yahapalana found that it was not possible to send
the IDPs back to their original homes though the military had released 3,800 acres
of privately owned lands back to their owners, because there were no houses.
170,000 houses were needed. That included 60,000 houses for IDPs who have lost
all their properties during the 3 decades of conflict said Yahapalana in 2018.
Yahapalana
planned initially to provide steel prefabricated dwellings from Arcelor Mittal
but this was objected to as most unsuitable. The plan was discarded. In 2018 Cabinet
approval was given for the construction of 25,000 houses for the North and
East. under the first phase
of this project, 15,000 houses would be constructed giving priority to the
internally displaced and those who have been living as refugees in India and
are returning to the country. Then in 2019, Yahapalana said that it could not
allocate money for this, but would set aside around Rs 8 billion in the
forthcoming budget to fund 7,000 prefabricated concrete houses in the East.
These will be built by a recently incorporated local entity, Yapka Construction
Ltd.
In 2019 it was also announced that action had been initiated to
construct 10,000 brick and mortar/cement sand blocks type traditional houses.
Under the first phase, 1500 houses for Jaffna , 670 houses for Kilinochchi ,
630 houses for Mullaitivu, 450 houses for Vavuniya, 350 houses for Mannar, 625
houses for Batticaloa, 400 houses for Trincomalee and 125 houses for Ampara
would be constructed. These houses have a floor area of 550 sq.ft, two bed
rooms, kitchen, living room and toilet with Calicut titles. The estimated cost
was one million rupees.
in 2017, 48 model villages were built for the war
displaced.
The
National Housing Development Authority will build 125 new model villages in the
Northern Province reported the media in 2018. The model villages will be located in Mannar,
Vavuniya, Killinochchi and Mullaitivu districts. Similar programmes
were being implemented in the Ampara, Batticaloa and Trincomalee district in
the Eastern Province too.
There was landlessness in the
north. 15,639 people were registered as landless in the Jaffna district alone
in 2018. Landlessness is
an issue all over the North and east, but it is most marked in the Jaffna
district where the population is high and State-owned land is scarce. Some are
on temple land, others on private land.
in 2018, Yahapalana made a special arrangement
to provide Rs. 400,000 to buy a land and Rs 800,000 to construct a house for
each extended family living in welfare camps in Jaffna. In the same year, Yahapalana announced that government
land has been divided and allocated to 25 families at Keerimalai.
Twenty five houses have already been
constructed in these lands with the local funding and distributed among 25
families. the balance 300 families have now given their consent to resettle
them in the alternative lands. Before
that In 2016, title deeds to lands in Sidhambarapuram in Vavuniya were given to
190 families. Sidhamabarapuram was a camp that housed refugee families from
Jaffna who had been temporary settled there in 1990.
In 2017 it was
reported that after the war, there was a growing trend of families borrowing
loans at high rates of interest, simply to survive. Loans are taken by
mostly women to start a small business, buy a few cattle or chickens to earn an
income for the family. Due to restrictions from state banks to get loans, micro
finance companies, offering high interest loans have taken advantage of the
situation. These micro-finance companies are thriving mostly in Kilinochchi and
Mullaitivu.
These micro finance companies were charging as
high as 300 per cent interest. this is in addition to a fine when repayments
accumulate. micro finance company employees go to the homes of clients at night
to collect the installment. they use abusive language. the borrowers are committing suicide, families have broken up from
the social unrest arising out of the inability to repay loans said the
northerners. These insensitive micro finance companies must be brought under
control. they said. Residents urged that these finance companies should be
banned from Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu and Jaffna. Pyramid-type businesses are
also springing up in the north, they said.
Sri Lanka’s Central Bank will evolve a
programme to help the country’s war-affected communities tackle the mounting
pressure of household debt, promised Yahapalana. Central Bank was considering a
three-pronged strategy, a moratorium, increasing the maturity of the loans, and
exploring how interest rates can be reduced,
thereafter, Yahapalana decided to write off the loans. About 75,000 women
will benefit with the recent government decision to write off the
non-consumption loans granted up to Rs. 100,000 by registered microfinance
institutions.
The returnees needed
employment. Yahapalana announced that 2018 budget had made provisions to help
resettle former LTTE cadres, provide them with soft loans for businesses and
provide help in livelihood opportunities. In 2019 Commissioner General of
Rehabilitation stated that rehabilitated LTTE cadres were paid money in
addition to the allowance paid during employment training,
The media reported in 2019 that the Bureau of the
Commissioner General of Rehabilitation has spent around Rs. 110,442,018 for the
provision of equipment for the rehabilitees to begin their lives and engage in
self-employment after being reintegrated into society. Further assistance has
been given to the rehabilitated ex-combatants through the relevant district
secretariats.
For self-employment, Rs. 12,982,262 had been paid
out in 2018 with Jaffna being allocated Rs. 7,650,726, Killinochchi Rs.
1,000,000, Mullaitivu Rs. 900,000, Mannar Rs. 599,956. Vavuniya Rs. 2,131,580
and Trincomalee allocated Rs. 700,000. For the
provision of agricultural equipment of Rs. 7,067,838 had been allocated, Rs.
6,850,000 allocated for the provision of livestock for the reintegrated persons
to carry on their livelihood and Rs. 899,900 allocated for the supply of
fishing gear for them.
The first hi-tech vocational training centre, in the north, spreading
over 15 acres, was launched in 2019 at Ariya Nagar, Kilinochchi with German
aid. equipment valued at Rs. 350 million was donated by the Stassen Group.
In 2017 Yahapalana spoke of micro enterprises for
the north and east. Plans are afoot to establish 1,785 micro-enterprises in the
Northern and Eastern Provinces under the Enterprise Based Village Development
Project, said Yahapalana.
In that year Yahapalana announced that it
proposed to establish micro-enterprises in 113 villages in the two
provinces and the project will be supported by a concessionary micro-finance
funding through the Regional Development Bank and SANASA. The total estimated
cost is Rs.446 million. Each Micro enterprise will receive a maximum assistance
of Rs.250, 000. Twenty five percent of the estimated cost of each
initiative will be supported through a matching grant while 75 percent will be
under a loan agreement. The interest will also be backed by Government funds.
The sectors were fisheries, livestock, self-employment, micro/small
industries, handicrafts and services. One hundred and thirty two women-headed
families were covered under the first phase of the programme. The total cost of
the programme was Rs.14 million.
There were other forms of
assistance too. A new seed paddy variety Swayanhatha” which can be grown
without agro chemicals, insecticides or fertilizer was introduced to 64
selected farmers in Kilinochchi. The National Integration and Reconciliation
Ministry provided 85 bicycles to the schoolchildren of Mulankavil Maha
Vidyalayam and Nallur Maha Vidyalayam in Poonalari Divisional Secretariat to
avoid dropouts and increase school attendance.
Various industrial projects were started in the north. Special
attention was paid to thePalmyra
industry. It was given a special allocation of Rs 100 million, with the objective of increasing exports of
Palmyra-based jaggery and other related sap products, Yahapalana also took steps to revitalize and
strengthen the Palmyra Development Cooperative Societies in the Northern
Province which had 7,500 members.
Members of the Palmyra Development Societies met Prime Minister Ranil
Wickremesinghe and asked for a toddy bottling plant to preserve the excess
toddy and to cater to the market during the off-season.” There are also plans to set up a modern jaggery plant, a
sweet toddy bottling facility, a toddy bottling plant, a sugar candy production
facility, and jaggery centres in the Northern districts of Jaffna, Kilinochchi,
and Mullaitivu. a Rs. 20 million project has been
initiated for a Palmyra-based food processing centre in Kilinochchi district.
the Palmyra Research Centre housed at Kaithadi would be given support. the
north had lost four million Palmyra palms during the Eelam wars. the Board
would replace them.
The second phase of
Atchuvely Industrial Estate Development Project was implemented in 2018. Yahapalana would invest Rs. 100 million for
this project, reported the media. This would be the second industrial zone for
the North East,
50
percent of the electricity costs of the industrialists would be reimbursed by
the government. The money required for this has been set aside in the 2018
Budget.
Two coconut projects were publicized. There would be a Coconut rehabilitation
programme where over 18500 acres of coconut land in north will be rehabilitated
and 25400 new coconut lands created. Treasury will provide 650 million and
balance 2650 million be will foreign investments. there would also be a coconut
plantation promotion project, collaboration with the Giriulla Silvermill Group,
the Coconut Development Board and the army.
Pelawatte dairy would
invest Rs 1.5 billion in three fresh milk processing plants in North, there are
several abandoned milk producing factories in the north east. He will turn them
over and provide employment for 200 persons, said Pelawatte chairman.
Hirdramani opened Rs 450 million factory in Puthukkudiyiruppu. A Sri Lanka
company headed by an Indian was given the green light from the government to
start a bamboo cultivation project in north in Vavuniya. Buddhi batiks conducted a CSR project for war
widows in Batticaloa and Vavuniya to design woven shawls.
NGOs were
active in the north. Daham Pahana
Foundation, started by Brother Charles Thomas, has facilitated many projects to donate school
items and bicycles in collaboration with the Jaffna Security Force
Headquarters. Under this initiative, 300 scholarships were awarded to deserving
students on May 10, 2018, and again in June this year, another 100 bicycles was
donated. other NGOs gave water pumps.
The Oxonian Heart Foundation launched a campaign in Colombo to raise
funds for heart surgery in northern and north central provinces. Patients are sent to Kandy and Colombo at
present for the operations.
Appé Lanka is a project to uplift the people of Poonakary, a
village in Kilinochchi .Its 20,000 residents, have been severely affected by
the civil war and are still struggling to regain a sense of normalcy in their
lives.” They are struggling
to rebuild their lives after the devastation and anguish that they were subject
to when living in the midst of a combat zone,” said Appe Lanka.
Appé Lanka, which
operates under the banner of Awakening Lanka, was founded by Shaan Corea in
2015. the project is further supported by a network of partners which includes
Michael Ondaatje(Patron), Sampath Bank, Murad Ismail, D.L & F. De Saram and
Olivia Bonnal Sansoni. Three private schools run by the Church of Sri
Lanka, (Anglican Church) joined as the
school partners. They are Bishops
College, S. Thomas’ College and Ladies’ College The
project is endorsed by the Sri Lankan Government’s Ministry of Rehabilitation
and Resettlement
Appé Lanka has
completed a pilot project that has provided solar home systems to 28 homes. It
has donated bicycles for the children to travel to school. all schools within Poonakary were equipped
with safe usable water through a water purification project. it has also raised
funds to donate 38 computers to 23 village schools. Next they plan to
provide water for all 19 Grama Niladhari divisions in Poonakary. (continued)
