1/
2/
Home Sri Lanka Think Tank-UK (Main Link)
2/
Muslim
settlements in Mannar dates back to more than one thousand years.In her
book “The Muslims of Sri Lanka” eminent historian Dr. Lorna Dewaraja
explained that by 9th century Muslim settlements were established in the coastal areas including Mannar. Muslims
in and around Mannar area were descendants of early Arab traders who
came for trade.Theysettled down and integrated well with the local
people and continued their life in peace and harmony as traders,
fishermen and farmer. This situation
continued uninterrupted until racism of the two major communities,
Sinhalese and Tamils, began raising their ugly heads which later turned
this paradise of a country into one of the worst killing fields in Asia.
Sandwiched
between these two communities Muslims remained the most peaceful people
in the island and the Mannar Muslims were no exception. They lived in
harmony with their Tamil neighbors. These centuries old traditional
lifestyle was disturbed with the advent of Tamil militancy especially
the LTTE, the so called freedom movement turned into one of the worst
fascist killing machines in modern history.
From
the very inception Muslims kept out of this conflict between the two
communities. However they were dragged into the conflict to pay a heavy
price. Mannar Muslims, around 7600 families with more than 36,000
people, were subjected to immense hardships and difficulties by the LTTE
gangs. These atrocities climaxed on 30 October 1990 when the LTTE
driven them out of their homes and lands together with rest of the
Muslim population in the north at very short notice. In the north
Muslims were given two hours while Mannar Muslims were driven out
within two days. This was an unprecedented crime in modern history and
even majority Sinhalese never resorted to such heartless ethnic
cleansing of Tamils in the south despite merciless LTTE atrocities.
In their extensive report on the plight of evicted Mannar Muslims activist Anberiya
and Mujib pointed out that they werestripped of their belongings, lands,and housesand permitted to take only Rupees 500 with them. They were not permitted to take any document including their birth certificates, title deeds to their lands and houses and other such valuablethings.This has caused severe hardships to them in claiming their properties.
and Mujib pointed out that they werestripped of their belongings, lands,and housesand permitted to take only Rupees 500 with them. They were not permitted to take any document including their birth certificates, title deeds to their lands and houses and other such valuablethings.This has caused severe hardships to them in claiming their properties.
The
plundering of the possessions from their homes followed soon after
their enforced departure. The physical, economic, social and
psychological suffering to which the entire Northern Muslim population
was subjected was immeasurable.
Northern
Muslims claim that the Government was aware of the imminent eviction
but failed to take action against the LTTE despite the presence of the
Army. The International Non-Governmental Organization and local
Non-GovernmentalOrganizations (NGO) were also silent observers of the
eviction process. Following the expulsion majority of the Forcibly
Evicted Persons (FEP) travelled to Puttalam where they were
sympathetically received by the Muslims who provided them space for
shelter, food and other basic needs during the initial days of
displacement. According towell-known researcherM.I.M.Mohideenabout 82 %
of the Northern Muslims ended up as refugees in Puttalam district. A
small minority went to places such as Anuradhapura and Kurunegala. Then
President R. Premadasa did not want the Northern Muslims to settle in
Colombo District.
Their
sufferings during the past two decades in the refugee camps in
appalling conditions were immense. They survived on the paltry dry
ration provided by the government.
With
normalcy returning in the aftermath of the crushing defeat of LTTE in
May 2009 Mannar Muslims started returning to their neglected lands and
abandoned homes in small numbers only to see their property being
destroyed and the lands turned into thick jungles. There is hardly any
basic facility to start with. Most of themneeded assistance to clear
their lands and rebuild their houses.
They
needed government assistance to restart their lives. However in a
shameful decision the UNHCR, a wing of United Nations which legalizes
wars against Muslim countries worldwide, declared them as old internally
displaced people, IDPs, and started rehabilitating the Tamil war
victims. Thus the Mannar Muslim’s hopes were dashed.
It is worthy to remind that British Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
David Miliband and French Foreign Minister followed by UN Secretary
General Ban Ki Moon rushed all the way from London, Paris and New York
to see the conditions of Tamil IDPs in the aftermath of the LTTE defeat.
However none of them went to see the plight of Muslim refugees in
Puttalam.This speaks a lot for their indifference towards the plight of
Muslim refugees not only in Puttalam but the millions of Muslims who
weremade refugees by their so called war on terrorism.
However
Mannar Muslims started returning to their lands, but the Government was
not supportive. There was no mention of the return of Northern Muslims,
or for that matter ‘old’ IDPs at large, in the 180 day resettlement
plan of the government. On 18th August 2009 Government published an
advertisement calling for all Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)–
including Northern Muslims – wishing to return to register, but there is
no information about the modalities of the resettlement process.
To-date the State has not given any policy direction based on the
replies to the advertisement.
Musali Muslims
According
to areport prepared by Dr Hasbulla and his team “Muslims formed 68
percent of the population, before they were evicted, in the Musali
Divisional Secretariat of the Mannar District. There were 22 prominent
Muslim settlements spread over an area of 486 square km. Musali was
blessed with land and sea resources. A major irrigation system, which
was somewhat equal to the Giant Tank called Agathimurippu was the base
for agricultural activities of the Muslim farmers of the area. This
irrigation system had 65 minor sub tanks supplying water through a 12 km
stretch for major canals that sufficiently irrigated a total of 5800
acres of agricultural land. Needless to say, a strong socio-economic
and cultural infrastructure sprang from this economic base. However the
entire system of civilization in Musali is now in a state of ruin. The
region is now fully covered by secondary forest. No traces of any
permanent buildings are found in this area. Tanks and irrigation canals
have been silted and damaged almost completely. It is a shock to see
the enormity of the devastation in Musali. They took a great deal of
risk to return to their places of origin in Musali despite threat of
wild animals and landmines (e.g., Chilawathurai). Now almost all the
Muslim villages have some returnees .These returnee have already begun
to encounter a host of problems including shortage of food, inadequate
shelter, lack of medical facilities, poor schooling for their children
and bad infrastructure.
Mannar Island Muslims
In
the Mannar Island, most of the former Muslim concentrations are limping
back to normalcy with Muslim refugees returning. Only about 15 percent
of the
total displaced Muslims have returned to date places such as
Puthukuddiyirrupu, Erukkalampiddy, Uppukulam, Tharapuram, Karisal,
Talaimannar, Kataspathiri (Pesali) and Moor Street of Mannar Town.
Surprisingly, the cease-fire agreement did not encourage the Mannar
Island Muslims to return home as they do not have shelter for immediate
occupations and most of the remaining houses are not in habitable
conditionwhile others are occupied. Landmines in Talaimannar remain yet
another problem. The returnees feel insecure and vulnerable because only
a small number had returned compared to the number of Muslims who
lived there before they were displaced. In the midst many of Muslim
residents of Mannar Town sold their houses and other properties.
Returnees have also reported fears about possible restrictions on
religious and cultural practices as well.
Commerce
and Industry Minister Rishad Bathiudeen explained in detail the present
plight of Mannar Muslims in an interview with Ceylon Today.
He
explained that United Nations Human Commission for Refugees, UNHCR, has
termed those displaced prior to 2008, as ‘old IDPs’, resulting in them
losing much of the humanitarian assistance currently provided for IDPs
by various groups. Since the end of the conflict, hundreds of Northern
Muslim refugees started returning to their lands.They faceseries of
problems and there have been little recognition of the issues involved
in the resettlement process.
The
UNHCR is providing assistance only to ‘new IDPs’, whereas 90% of the
Muslims do not fall into such a category. Even the NGOs provide
assistance to ‘new IDPs’. Under this program none of the Muslim
families receive livelihood support, shelter and sanitary facilities.
No Muslim school was reconstructed. Villages still look like jungles.
He
added that even the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC)
report suggested the need for policy decisions to resettle the Muslims
in the North, but the government has not taken any initiative.
He
explained that it is three years since the present Resettlement
Minister assumed duties, butshame to say, that he has not visitednorth,
which need to be resettled. The minister should take up this
resettlement issue seriously. After the war, no meeting on this issue
was held in those areas. Why is the government not paying any attention
to this? It is only when you visit the areas that you really understand
the suffering of Muslims there.
Minister
Bathiudeen also accused “the Bishop of Mannar of blocking the
resettlement ofMuslimsand even written to President Mahinda Rajapaksa
against the Muslims. It’s quite shocking to hear that the Bishop has
asked the Catholics not to sell lands to Muslims during resettlement. I
spoke about this in Parliament. When I was the Minister of
Resettlement, I resettled all the Tamils in the North. By the time I was
to resettle the Muslims, there was a change in the Cabinet of
Ministers. After that, no one took any initiative to resettle them. Now I
am taking the initiative but the Bishop is obstructing them. My only
expectation is to resettle my people. They are all my relatives. I was
also an IDP. It is with their votes that I became a Minister”.
He
said seventy nine mosques in the North were demolished during the war.
No one has taken any initiative to re-construct these mosques or houses
which were demolished during the war.
“This
issue can only be sorted out with the help of the government and the
NGOs. I have decided, if these issues are not addressed accordingly, I
will quit politics and not contest in the next general elections.
IfPresident Mahinda Rajapakse takes pride in saying that he won the war,
he also needs to resettle the people” said Minister Bathiudeen. The
government is silent perhaps they know Muslim politicians who sold
their souls for positions and perks and dropped the community would not
raise these issues. (Latheef Farook)
No comments:
Post a Comment