IDPs

Image: Owners of the land waking towards their land after 27 years. (SLArmy) Responding positively to the concerns of the public, Members of Parliament (MPs) and local politicians in the Jaffna District, the Security Force Headquarters – Jaffna (SFHQ-J) on Monday (3) released one more land patch of 54 acres along the coastal belt in […]

The United States had “a detailed coordinated plan” with the Indian and Sri Lanka Governments for its Navy to rescue trapped displaced persons in Puthukudiyiruppu during the final stages of the separatist war, according to Ambassador Robert Blake, then Washington’s envoy in Colombo. However, the Sri Lankan Government killed the idea for fear that Erik […]

By Manekshaw. Illankai Tamil Arasu Katchchi (ITAK) leader and Tamil National Alliance Parliamentarian Mavai S. Senathirajah became the first high profile Internally Displaced Person (IDP) to return last week to his house in Mavittapuram, in the Jaffna peninsula, after a lapse of 27 years. The ITAK, being the foremost Tamil political party founded by late […]

The new DW documentary accompanies artist Ai Weiwei during work on his own film. It depicts his life between Beijing, New York and Berlin, and is a very personal look at China’s most famous artist living in the West.  A glimpse inside DW’s Ai Weiwei documentary The DW documentary “Ai Weiwei Drifting” initially aimed to […]

Rita Izsák-Ndiaye at the side event (c)s.deshapriya. Ms. Rita Izsák-Ndiaye, the UN Special Rapporteur on minority issues speaking at a side event on 17th March 2017  reiterated that the story of Sri Lanka is not just the story of Sinhalese or Tamils, but of all the religious and ethnic groups including Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Telugus, […]

Image: Jensila Majeed speaking at a side event organised by IMADR at HRC 34 on Women and Minority Rights in Sri Lanka’s TJ process. ©s.deshapriya By Jensila Majeed, Former CTFSL member, Mullative. 75,000 Muslim were evacuated by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 1990, just because we were Muslims. Government of Sri Lanka […]

by Ruki Fernando and Marisa de Silva. We first met 83 year old grandmother Sellamma when she was part of a protest fast outside the Puthukudiyiruppu Divisional Secretariat. At that time, her land and house across the road had been occupied by the Army for eight years. She was protesting along with her neighbours, mostly […]

Image: Women led peaceful agitations calling for releasing their land has intensified in recent times. (photo @garrikaalan) Sending a open letter to the president Sirisena, R Sampanthan leader of the TNA and leader of the Opposition Sri Lankan Parliament has asked him to take steps to release the the land at Valikamam North in Jaffna […]

Image: Sri Lanka civil society delegtes at the CEADW 66. At the ongoing 66 session of CEADW in Geneva  Women’s Action Network  has raised following issues related to Women’s Access to Justice in North and East of Sri Lanka. Transitional Justice (TJ) Today, Sri Lanka claims to be in the process of developing programs for […]

Ruki Fernando. Sellamma is 83 years old. She has a house in Puthukudiyiruppu (PTK) East, Ward no. 7, in the Mullaitivu district in the Northern Province. It’s opposite the PTK Divisional Secretariat (DS). But for more than two weeks, she has been braving the hot sun and cold nights on the street, opposite her house. […]

Image: protesting villagers  Keppapilavu by @shalin. We, the undersigned civil society organizations, write this statement to express solidarity with protestors of Keppapilavu and condemn the Government’s lack of appropriate and timely response or action towards releasing their land from military occupation. For over two weeks, villagers from Pilakudiyiruppu, Keppapilavu, have been stationed on the side […]

(Image cortesy of IRIN/Amantha Perera) By P K Balachandran. COLOMBO: The Chief Minister of Sri Lanka’s Tamil-majority Northern Province, C.V.Wigneswaran, has refuted an allegation made by Muslim leaders, that his administration is discriminating against the Muslims in the matter of post-war resettlement. In a press statement issued on Tuesday, Wigneswaran said that among the 4307 […]

(Internally displaced woman in a Welfare Centre in the Jaffna area, Northern Sri Lanka, January 2016.) On 16 August 2016, the Sri Lankan Cabinet approved a “National Policy on Durable Solutions for Conflict-affected Displacement”. Guest bloggers Laurie Wiseberg and Mirak Raheem discuss the new policy and its implementation. The Context The drafting process, which took […]

( File photo: requesting their land in Valikamam ) The Army has agreed to release to civilians 700 more acres of private land occupied by it in the Valikamam North area in Jaffna, District Secretary N. Vedhanayagan said.He said this was in response to a request made by him to the military to release 1,500 […]

( Refugees returning  from India at the Air Port) Read the draft policy on IDPS as a PDF:Draft policy on resettlement of IDPs A new National policy on war displaced, which was approved by the cabinet last week, will ensure the rights of internally displaced persons is protected and all their issues are addressed. The […]

( Camp of war displaced in Sri Lanka; 2009 file photo) The cabinet has approved a national policy to deal with war displaced families, the Government announced today. Hundreds were displaced during the war between the LTTE and the military but while many have either returned to their homes or were given alternate land following […]

T. Ramakrishnan. Sri Lankan security forces have released 700 more acres and the Kankesanthurai railway station in the Northern Province, a few days before the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, is to give an update to the Human Rights Council in Geneva on the status of implementation of the October […]

All the lands except the ones occupied for the purpose of security in North and East will be released while paying compensation for the lands that were acquired, Defence Secretary Karunasena Hetttiarachchi said. He said this at a function of releasing 201.3 acres of land for resettlement within the High Security Zone in Valikamam North. […]

( Image: A Tamil woman worshiping- AP Photo -Eranga Jayawardena) “Seven years have elapsed since the end of the armed conflict in the country. Several hundred thousands of Tamils and others were displaced from their original places of residence in the North and the East during the period of the said armed conflict. Unambiguous assurances […]

(Sri Lanka President Maithripala Sirisena -File|AP) By P.K.Balachandran. COLOMBO: The Maithripala Sirisena government has allocated LKR 14,000 million (USD 95.8 million) in 2016 for the rehabilitation and resettlement of all Lankans affected by war, including the people of the Tamil-speaking North and the East; refugees repatriated from India; and the war-affected Sinhalese border villagers. The […]

[Displaced Sri Lankan Tamil civilians seen at the Kadirgamh camp in Chettikulam, north Sri Lanka. (Photo: AP)] PTI- Colombo: Sri Lanka will by year-end resettle all people, including the minority Muslims and the Sinhalese, who were displaced during the nearly three-decade-long war against the LTTE, a senior minister said on Sunday. “We have six months […]

( Myliddy; image courtesy Tamildiplomat) Tamil politicians this week stepped up calls on the Sri Lankan military to release occupied land in the fishing village of Myliddy. Recalling the Sri Lankan president’s pledge to release all land held by the military in Valikaamam North during a recent visit to the North-East, the chief minister of […]

( Building houses for IDPs in North, a Habitat photo) The government has allocated Rs. 14 billion for high impact resettlement projects in the Northern and Eastern provinces to integrate war affected families into the mainstream of development. The projects are being implemented on a priority basis by the Prison Reforms, Rehabilitation, Resettlement and Hindu […]

(The Opposition Leader and the Leader Of Tamil National Alliance Hon. R . Sampanthan met with  visiting Norwegian Deputy Foreign Minister Tore Hattrem on 31st May) Visiting Norway’s deputy foreign minister Tore Hattrem visited Norwegian funded UNDP programme in Jaffna on 1st June and discussed the issues related to resettlement of IDPs. In his speech […]

(Thousands of houses in Jaffna were destroyed during the war) Cabinet has decided to appoint a ministerial committee chaired by the President and including the Prime Minister and other relevant ministers to look into the resettlment of Sinhalese and Muslims who had to flee the North of the country due to the war. According to […]

President Maithripala Sirisena has given instructions to the relevant officials to finalize the process of identification of lands for the resettlement of internally displaced persons in the North by next Friday (June 03). He gave these instructions during a special meeting on the resettlement of displaced people in North and East, held at the Presidential […]

By A. O. SCOTTMAY 5, 2016. Jacques Audiard’s “Dheepan,” which won the Palme d’Or in Cannes a year ago, arrives in North American theaters having lost none of the timeliness that was widely noted last May. Screening in the South of France a few months after the Charlie Hebdo massacre, as the Syrian refugee problem […]

(Canadian Tamil Congress with the support of Trincomalee Welfare Association (Canada) committed to build temporary houses for these 41 women headed families. A little over $100,000 was raised through the Tamil Canadian Walk-a-thon for the Sampur housing project which was held on September 13th 2015. TNA leader R.Sampanthan delayers them open) By Sulochana Ramiah Mohan. […]

A team of experts from Moratuwa University has found that 65,000 steel houses, to be constructed in Jaffna by ArcelorMittal multinational steel company, are unfit for human habitation. Read the full report here:Jaffna-65K-houses-analysis The team comprising Prof. Priyan Dias, Dr. Rangika Halwatura and architect Varuna de Silva has released their preliminary findings during two-day visit […]

(Vikalka photo: Sinhalese IDPs in Panama) [Ministry of Prison reform, Rehabilitation, Resettlement and Hindu religious Affairs – Report on national policy on durable solutions for conflict affected displacement ( 3rd Draft) 7th April 2016] It  is  imperative  that  the  Government  sets  out  a  time  frame  for  expediting  resettlement  and ensure that the bulk of the […]