REFUGEE

Refugees lived primarily in camps in Puttalam district. In 1990, Tamil Tigers expelled them en mass from the northern part of the island. A repatriation ceremony will take place on 26 December in the presence of President Rajapaksa.

Colombo (AsiaNews) – About 100,000 Muslim Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) will go home before the end of the year. For the past 20 years, they have lived in refugee camps in Puttalam District and neighbouring areas. Tamil Tigers had expelled them.
The repatriation of northern Muslim communities will begin on 26 December in a ceremony in the presence of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa. The announcement was made by Vanni Member of Parliament and Resettlement Minister Rishard Bathiyutheen who himself lived for a while in the Puttalam refugee camp.

The war between Tamil Tigers and the army deeply marked the fate of the Muslim population from northern Sri Lanka. In 1990, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) forced Tamil-speaking Muslims to leave their homes in what constituted to an act of ethnic cleansing.

The first to leave were some 1,500 people from Chavakacheri, followed by more from Kilinochchi, Mannar and Jaffna. The latter were rounded up and held in Osmania College and force to leave the city in two days, taking only the clothes they had on their back and 50 rupees.

At least 10,000 families, or 75,000 people, were expelled from the northern region occupied by the Tamil Tigers.

Following the ceasefire between the LTTE and the government of February 2002, the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress had made a proposal to Tamil rebels for the return of Muslim refugees from the northern part of the Island. An agreement was signed in April of that year but was never respected by the Tigers.

Over the years, Muslims from the Northern Province increased in numbers but were forced to live in refugee camps until now.

Most Sri Lankan refugees resettled from large military-run camps since the end of a 25-year civil war in May are still in transit facilities while de-mining work is finished, the government said on Friday.

Human Rights and Disaster Management Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe said 70 percent of the more than 280,000 refugees who fled the end of the war against the Tamil Tigers had been relocated from the main camps.

"The bulk of them are still in temporary facilities. It's a transit camp until the de-mining is completed. There is quite a number in Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu," he said, referring to two former rebel-held districts in northern Sri Lanka.

On Tuesday, the government gave all those resident in the main camps permission to leave temporarily to find work or seek out relatives, answering months of international criticism over freedom of movement restrictions.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees on Friday said at least 7,000 people had left the camps on the first day, and that more were leaving to find family members and visit centres where those with suspected Tamil Tiger rebel links are being held.

"We are encouraged by the Sri Lankan government's long-awaited decision this week to allow increased freedom of movement for some 135,000 internally displaced people," UNHCR said in a statement.

The government had earlier resisted pressure to let people out, saying they first had to be screened to ensure they did not have links to the Tamil Tigers and their home areas cleared of landmines. UNHCR urged swift progress in demining.

The refugees' situation has grown into a big political issue since the end of the war, especially now that former army commander General Sarath Fonseka will challenge incumbent President Mahinda Rajapaksa at an Although Fonseka was frequently criticised by opposition parties as he led the army to victory, they have since courted him as a common candidate for a patchwork coalition designed solely to defeat Rajapaksa.

In May, Sri Lanka crushed the Tigers and ended their quarter-century war to create a separate nation for the Tamil ethnic minority on the island of 21 million people, three-quarters of whom are from the Sinhalese ethnic group.

As the military advanced relentlessly in the final year of the war, the Tigers had with them nearly 300,000 Tamils who the United Nations and others said were being kept as human shields. Most were brought by force, although some backed the Tigers.

(Editing by Bryson Hull)