Resettlement efforts are under way for thousands of displaced Muslims from Sri Lanka’s north who have been languishing in refugee camps for nearly two decades, officials say.

By Devanesan Nesiah

Sri Lanka has been increasingly the scene of much ethnic violence. The Northern Muslims are the victims of the earliest large scale act of ethnic cleansing in our history. Close to 80,000 persons, constituting the entire Muslim population of the five Northern Districts of Jaffna, Mannar, Vavuniya, Mullaithivu and Kilinochchi were summarily expelled from the province by the LTTE on one fateful day in October 1990 at a few hours notice. The details of the constraints imposed on the victims varied from location to location depending on the degree of brutality of the local LTTE leadership, but nowhere were those evicted able to sell, transfer or otherwise secure or dispose of their property or to take with them cash or other moveable possessions. The operation was carried out so quickly and with such ruthless efficiency that there was little or no resistance. The state failed to intervene. Sadly, the protests of the national leadership, Tamil and non-Tamil, and of the national and the international community were muted.

By Mirak Raheem

This October marked the nineteenth anniversary of the expulsion of the Northern Muslims. In this one act of ethnic cleaning the LTTE forcibly evicted the entire Muslim population from the five districts of the Northern Province resulting in the mass displacement and dispossession of over 60,000 persons.

Double standard on human sufferings stinks high heaven

By Latheef Farook

The legal consequences- Concerns and Recommendations

By M.H.M. Salman

"On 27 October 1990, I was working in the fields. LTTE cadres came and asked us to leave the place within two hours. We took a few clothes in plastic carrier bags and walked a long way," says an elderly man now living in a Puttalam camp.

Background

The Moor Street of Mannar is one of the densely populated areas of the Mannar district. The Muslims were living in large numbers in the area before the forcible expulsion of 1990 perpetrated by the LTTE.

Muslim presence in the North dates back to eighth century. According to historians forefathers of present Muslims were present in the North of Sri Lanka as far back as the eight century.  Mannar and Jaffna are two places recorded in history. Muslims have been engaged in Trade and other vocation in the Jaffna area. They were settled in number of streets and those streets had Muslim names.  Large number of mosques and schools also catered to them. In 1981 the total number of Muslims in the North was 50,831.   According to statistics as at end of 2007 the population of Muslims in the North is 20,583. 

A three-decade-old circular allowing Muslim schoolgirls to wear the Punjabi suit to school is fuelling a controversy that may spread throughout Sri Lanka.

Special Report on innocent Pottuvil Muslim firewood cutters remanded in Moneragala prison