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Initially the government gave a timeframe of two to three years for the resettlement of these people. This caused grief and outrage among the Tamil community, both in Sri Lanka and in the diaspora. It led to the voicing of strong concerns from the international community, including India, and was the subject of much adverse international media reportage.
The government's original resettlement plan, which surfaced early this year, was indeed a very comprehensive one. It included building up the infrastructure of the welfare centers into small townships, complete with schools, hospitals and playgrounds. But this created an impression that implementing this program could lead to the effective incarceration of people in the camps for more than three years.
As a result of these misgivings the government came under severe local and international pressures to speed up the resettlement of the displaced persons.
The government’s relatively poor performance in local elections in the north earlier in the year sent a warning that its resettlement strategy would erode any possibility of getting Tamil votes in forthcoming national elections.
In addition the government came under tremendous criticism and pressure from human rights groups and the international media. The government's commitment to upholding international standards in the provision of humanitarian assistance began to be seriously challenged. This gave rise to intensified lobbying against the government by international human rights organizations and by the Tamil diaspora, which could have serious consequences.
One such consequence is the likelihood of economic sanctions. At present the government is doing its utmost to save the GSP + tariff concession granted by the European Union, and is engaged in a serious lobbying effort on that count.
There have been other threats as well, which make progress on resettlement a priority issue if the government is to manage its finances. Donor agencies that were supplying most of the food and other resources to maintain the welfare centers threatened to pull out. Instead they promised support only to those people who had been resettled.
Under these political and international pressures, the government has apparently decided to expedite the resettlement of the people hitherto confined to the welfare centers. In order to explain its actions, the government has said that most of the screening of the displaced population for cadres of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam has been completed.
Efforts to demine areas formerly held by the LTTE have been strengthened, with the government purchasing a large number of costly demining machines and training over 2000 military personnel to do the job.
However, this expedited resettlement of displaced persons is not according to the government's previous plan, which envisaged a systematic process. This was to first develop the physical infrastructure of the war-ravaged areas, including the roads, transport systems, wells and irrigation canals, schools, hospitals and community halls. Only after this infrastructure was put in place were the people to be resettled to rebuild their homes and war-shattered lives.
But now, only six months since the end of the war, very little has been done by way of developing the infrastructure of some of the areas into which people are being resettled. In fact, due to the nearly total destruction of infrastructure in places that were once under LTTE control, many people are not being resettled in their original places of habitation, which no longer exist.
A large proportion of the people who have been taken out of the welfare camps are being relocated to areas in the Jaffna peninsula and to the small islands off it, although they originally came from elsewhere in the north.
These new areas are often devoid of basic infrastructure, in which case the 25,000 rupees (US$218) being allocated to each family, of which only 5,000 rupees will be in cash, will not be enough to secure the necessities of survival.
When people who lived on the northern mainland are relocated to the coastal areas, as occurred in some instances, the farming skills that sustained their lives for generations will also become obsolete. Furthermore, schools, hospitals and other crucial facilities may be inaccessible or in a deteriorated state, condemning many to rudimentary lifestyles in an inhospitable environment.
There are accounts of people being relocated in war-ravaged areas to fend for themselves with barely any resources. There are accounts of people dying from snakebites because they are left without roads or vehicles or hospitals.
In this challenging situation, it is incumbent on the government to reconsider its decision to restrict access to humanitarian and nongovernmental organizations that are best equipped to help the people. NGOs are most adept at filling in the gaps in the government's macro-level programs. The resettlement of displaced persons is a gap that needs to be filled.
The provision of basic humanitarian needs is a primary function of civil society. The government needs to maximize resources and facilitate the efforts of civil society groups to rebuild trust and establish a base of continuous dialogue so that both can work efficiently together to assist the displaced.
Showing concern for the needs of the displaced people by providing them with basic requirements for survival and sufficient tools to rebuild their lives will also help develop trust between the government and the Tamil people, which is a crucial component of reconciliation. In addition, the government needs to examine its current priorities, and redistribute funds so that more resources will be available to meet the basic needs of its citizenry.
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(Dr. Jehan Perera is executive director of the National Peace Council of Sri Lanka, an independent advocacy organization. He studied economics at Harvard College and holds a doctorate in law from Harvard Law School. ©Copyright Jehan Perera.)
