Displaced Jaffna Muslims hear good news after three decades

After three decades since their initial displacement, Muslim IDPs from Jaffna now scattered across the country will finally be able to resettle thanks to a timely appeal by Sri Lanka’s Minister for Resettlement of Protracted Displaced Persons.

“Muslim IDPs who were resettled in Jaffna after the war, complain about the space of land available to them. They say the land is not enough for their growing population. Therefore some of them have even returned from the resettled locations back to their camps. I call Prime Minister Wickremesinghe’s attention to this issue. Some housing of condominium (flats) style would help them greatly” complained the Minister of Industry and Commerce, Resettlement of Protracted Displaced Persons & Cooperative Development Rishad Bathiudeen on 14 February in Jaffna. Minister Bathiudeen was addressing Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe during a meeting held in the Jaffna Divisional Secretariat Office on 14 February, joined by many regional and Parliamentary MPs from Jaffna.

During the war -exactly on 1990 October 30- Muslims living in some parts of Northern regions were expelled by LTTE to other parts of the country in an ethnic cleansing act. According to Minister Bathiudeen’s Coordinator of Jaffna Displaced Muslims Mr VAS Sufyan, around 2800 such displaced Muslim families from Jaffna later registered with the authorities as “displaced”. “Some of the 1990 displaced families are now living in Puttalam, Colombo, Gampaha and Panadura areas under very difficult circumstances while 700 other families of these returned to live in Jaffna –though not in their own, original lands, but just here and there in Jaffna vicinity. The Resettlement Ministry has started work to give half of them –around 365 families- better housing which is a great relief but another 335 families are struggling. Minister Bathiudeen’s request to Prime Minister on February 14 will bring relief to help this group” explained Sufyan.

After Minister Bathiudeen’s appeal on 14 February, Prime Minister Wickremesinghe promptly directed authorities in Resettlement Ministry and Divisional Secretariat to make arrangements to speed the resettlement process of displaced Muslim families of Jaffna.

This is the first time in three decades that the Jaffna’s displaced Muslims, since their plight of expulsion in 1990, are hearing good news on their future.

Among the 20000 Northern Muslim families expelled overnight from their traditional homes in North on 1990 October 30 was the eight-member family of Rishad Bathiudeen.