Comments on: Where do they go from here? https://groundviews.org/2010/08/26/where-do-they-go-from-here/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=where-do-they-go-from-here Journalism for Citizens Sun, 29 Aug 2010 03:49:45 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.1 By: eeurekaa https://groundviews.org/2010/08/26/where-do-they-go-from-here/#comment-22449 Sun, 29 Aug 2010 03:49:45 +0000 http://www.groundviews.org/?p=3926#comment-22449 While the govt could have resettled them as soon as Jaffna was captured by the army in the 90s, it has been using them as a showpiece to take visiting foreign politicians to tell them ”LTTE chased them from jaffna”. Of course LTTE shouldn’t have done that. But were they Sinhalese some solution would have been found a long time ago.
All the Sinhalese affected by LTTE attacks have been compensated as soon as possible.
The whole problem arises just because there is neither a national policy on internal displacement nor a system to follow international norms on that.

Government of the Sinhalese, by the Sinhalese(one or two Tamil/Muslim ministers as showpiece) and for the Sinhalese?????

]]> By: MCM Iqbal https://groundviews.org/2010/08/26/where-do-they-go-from-here/#comment-22427 Fri, 27 Aug 2010 15:55:22 +0000 http://www.groundviews.org/?p=3926#comment-22427 It would be interesting to note that the displaced Muslims of the North did not receive the kind of attention that those displaced by the war received. At the time of displacement in 1990 they did not have any charismatic leader who could voice their grievances effectively and fight for their cause. Both the Muslims of Jaffna and Mannar depended on the Muslim leaders of the South or the East to speak for them. Since these displaced lacked any political clout, successive governments did not pay much attention to their cause. It would not be wrong to say they received a step motherly treatment.
Now that several years have lapsed since the displacement, a new generation of youth have emerged to whom life in the North is only what they have heard from their parents, hence they have only an emotional attachment to the region. They would rather prefer to stay in the area where they were born after the displacement rather than go to the North where their parents were born and lived a more decent life. Some of these parents wish to fall in line with their grown-up children’s wishes. In the circumstances it is imperative that a proper assessment be made to find out which of these so called ‘Muslim refugees from the north’ actually want to go back and those who do not. Those who do not want to go back need to be assimilated with the people of the area in which they now live and provided equal status with them. After all, all citizens of Sri Lanka have a right to live in any part of the country. Therefore they should be included in the voters list of the areas in which they wish to live now and not into the voters list of the areas from which they arrived. The others who wish to go, should be given all the rights spelt out in the Deng Principles on the rights of displaced persons.
The government needs to compensate them appropriately for the losses they incurred consequent to their displacement. The infrastructure that was in place then, needs to be restored to make it possible for the displaced Muslims who return to the North to pick up the pieces and resume their lives. However, it is sad to say that re-settlement of the displaced Muslims of North had been far down in the agenda of successive governments that followed the displacement. Consequently, this problem had continued for the past several years. Let us hope at least the present government which appears to be keen to build houses and provide infrastructure facilities for the families of the security forces in the North. would at least show some interest in doing so for the displaced Muslims of the North. It is high time that the Muslims of Puttalam ceased to have two divisions amongst themselves, the ‘refugee’ Muslims and the traditional Muslims. That should become a thing of the past.

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