Saturday, April 28, 2012


Sri Lanka: “Resettled” Tamils in Vanni live in poverty



A typical resettlement hut in Dharmapuram

By Subash Somachandran 28 April 2012
Amid international criticism of human rights abuses during the last stages of Sri Lankan government’s war against separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the government has stepped up its propaganda about the “resettlement” of war refugees. It insists that it has have “resettled” more than 90 percent of the refugees and claims they live in better conditions than before the war.
Three years since the end of the war in May 2009, however, “resettled” Tamils in the former LTTE-controlled Vanni in northern Sri Lanka are living in deplorable conditions. The following article was submitted by a WSWS reporting team that recently visited the area. Residents’ names have been withheld for obvious security reasons.
A Vanni resident outside his hut
Kilinochchi.