Lingering sore in a fast-healing Jaffna

Chunnakam refugee camp: The small rusty zinc sheet-roofed homes that house 112 families. Pix by Indika Handuwala

Sunday, February 28, 2016

Nestled amidst lush green tobacco and onion fields in Chunnakam, eight kilometres away from this town, are rows of small houses. Rusty zinc sheets form the roof as well as walls. Some are also made of flattened old tar barrels. For 15 long years this refugee camp has been home for 112 families.It’s a showpiece of human misery and suffering in this northern capital where the ravages of a near three decades of separatist war have almost disappeared.

Seven toilets are shared by the more than 400 inmates here, one for every 58 people. “We queue up every morning to use them,” says 30 year-old Jenishwaran Jenita. The daughter of a well to -do fisherman who once owned a trawler, she epitomises the travails of those in this camp. She has been displaced since she was five years old. Now living in the camp, abandoned by her husband, she and her two children depend on her brother, a mason, for their livelihood. State assistance in the form of rations was only available until 2000, she said.

Tales of hardships: Jenishwaran Jenita and Thavagnanam Padma

M. Paramalingam: We have a variety of bananas

The refugees in this camp, like in 37 others dotting this peninsula, are mostly displaced fisher-families from Myliddy – the fishing village now at the centre of a tug of war between Tamil groups and the Government. The land where they lived was taken over to ensure security for aircraft using the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) runway. Since then, a number of other important security installations have come up in this stretch which juts into the sea where there is a fishing pier.

The Government wants to pay compensation to the land owners. In fact it had been agreed to by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. However, most Tamil groups insist that compensation will not help. They want the SLAF runway re-located in the Kilinochchi area and argue that was the only way those displaced could resume fishing activity. The debate goes on.
Prolonged life in the refugee camp has spawned a new generation – refugee children. They are at a school meant only for the displaced. For these children education is limited. There is no extracurricular activity including sports. They are blissfully unaware of how other schools function. They told me it was just a case of sitting in a makeshift classroom for a few hours, sometimes learning and other times chatting.

The Chunnakam Refugee Camp has been the cynosure of the Colombo based diplomatic community. So much so, even the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussain was a VIP visitor just weeks ago. He learnt how the camp gets flooded during rains and runs out of water during drought. After the visit Zeid was to declare that lands “which can should be swiftly given back.” He said a “lingering sore will have been cured once and for all.” A military official in the district, however, argued that the “government’s acknowledgement of humanitarian concerns have led to the release of large extents. Among those remaining include those that could affect national security considerations.” He spoke on grounds of anonymity since they are not authorised to speak to the media.

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