Musali Muslim resettlement in Sri Lanka

I think that Sri Lankan government should rethink its position on this issue and let all Musali Muslims to resettle in their villages. This should not be a communal issue and Sri Lankan government should no longer think in communal line in Sri Lanka.

by Dr SLM Rifai-Apr 1, 2017

Views expressed in this article are author’s own

(April 1, 2017, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) Resettlement of Northern Muslims has been an unresolved issue since 2009. Sri Lanka managed to end the 30 years’ war and yet, resettlement war continues in Sri Lanka even today. Most of Tamil and Singhalese community who were displaced from North & East provinces have been resettled long time ago and yet, resettlement of Musali Muslim has been somewhat a controversial issue for Sri Lankan government. This government has been compelled to listen to some far right extremists Singhalese groups and president was under immense pressure to declare some traditional parts of Muslim villages belong to national Welpattu forest. President signed a Gazettes notification declaring this on 24/03/2017. I think that this is one of the darkest days in the life of these northern Muslims who have been living in this area for more than 500 years, most of them are poor farmers who work day and night to make end meets in their life. It is a responsibility of government to settle them in their own villages and yet, Sri Lankan government has been indifferent to Musali Muslim community for some reasons. Only God knows why it has been like that.

The bitter truth is, since Sri Lanka got its independence from British rule, successive Sri Lankan governments have been settling Sinhalese communities in North & Eastern provinces of Sri Lanka. A large proportion of Sinhalese communities have been settled in Trincomalee, Kandalai, Amparai, Baticaloa, Vavuniya, Mannar and Mullaitivu districts with the support of successive governments. A large parts of forests have been destroyed for these settlements in the past and yet, all those who care about Wilpattu forest did not care about deforestation in these areas of Sinhalese settlements and yet, today Muslim resettlement in their own villages have created an outcry. Some far right extremist monks, media professionals, and politicians have been objecting to Muslim resettlement in their own villages. This is nothing but a clear cut institutional racism. What is the difference between LTTE who chased out innocent Muslims, and these elements of Sinhalese extremists who do the same thing as LTTE did in 1990. Only difference is LTTE is unofficial outfit and Sri Lankan government is democratically elected government.

1n 1990 Muslim communities of North forcefully chased out by LTTE and Musali Muslims were too chased out by LTTE. They have been living in different parts of Sri Lanka for more than 27 years now and today they want to go back to their own villages and yet, Sri Lankan government denies them right to live in their own villages in the pretext of forest preservation. Their homes, shops, schools and mosques have been deserted and abandoned for the last 27 years and they managed to clear up the forest and bushes with their hard works and studious labour. Today, these people are willing to go back and resettle in their villages and yet, SL government says that those places belong to national forests. What a twist of fact and what an institutional discrimination is this?

In previous government Richard Badurdeen has been the Minister for rehabilitation & resettlement for more than five years. During his tenure he made some historical mistakes. He gave preference to Tamil and Sinhalese community in resettlement process. He resettled them first in North & East and he ignored Muslim community during his tenure as a Minister for resettlement. SL government was forced and compelled to resettle Tamil community to appease international community for that reason, he was forced to speed up resettlements of Tamils. Sinhalese people too managed to get on board with Tamil in this process of resettlement and yet, Muslims were deliberately ignored and left out in this process of resettlement. Now, Muslim community of Musali pays the price for the mistake that was committed some time ago by their own Minister.

Muslim community, like any other indigenous communities, have cared for natural resources of this country and especially they have cared for the preservation of forest in Sri Lanka. They have preserved Sri Lankan forest. Indeed, Most of Muslim in North& East are farmers and they too cultivate their land and preserve the forests in their areas. Yet, who destroyed the fertile forest resource of Sri Lanka in South. Sri Lanka is blessed with natural resources. Its forests and its animal varieties are one of beautiful and riches in the world.

It was previous government that destroyed thousands of acres of fertile forest with unsustainable mega projects of Mattala airport, Hambantota hotel, sport ground and port projects. |Thousands of birds and animals may have been killed or migrated due to these projects. These projects have made more deforestation than what has been done by Musali Muslim. Muslims did not do any harm to forest at all. All what they did was they cleared the lands that have been deserted for 27 years. Please do not take me wrong. Each and every natural resources of Sri Lanka should be protected and persevered. There is no second thought about that. Sri Lanka is one of beautiful country. I fully support any legal mechanism that Sri Lankan Government takes to protect the natural resources of Sri Lanka, its historical places, its animals, its birds and its landscape, its ecology and its geography and its plantation and forest. Yet, in this particular issue I would say that Sri Lankan government should have sought the experts’ opinion to make sure that justice is done for these poor farmers of Musali.

It has been claimed that this episode of Musali problem is created by some elements in Sri Lanka. Some political elements in Sri Lanka want to revenge the former Minister for resettlement for some political reasons for that reason; this drama is created to revenge from him. I think that it would be unfair to revenge Musali Muslims because of political grudge with some politicians. Sri Lankan government should treat these innocent Muslim fairly and equally. Prof Hezbollah of Peradeniya University hails from that part of Sri Lanka. He is born and brought up in that area and he knows the entire history of Northern Muslim problems from A to Z. He has done some extensive researches on problems of Northern Muslims and indeed, he has published some books on this issue. He has carried out his research objectively without any bias. I think he is an expert on this issue. Rather than seeking experts’ view on Musali land disputes, how on earth Sri Lankan government signed this Gazette declaration without consulting experts on this issue.

I think that Sri Lankan government should rethink its position on this issue and let all Musali Muslims to resettle in their villages. This should not be a communal issue and Sri Lankan government should no longer think in communal line in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka has been taking some good reconciliation measures in recent times and this should not be a big issue for any communal disharmony. Recently, Sri Lanka has appointed a national reconciliation commission to look into these types of inter-communal disputes, it would have been better for politicians to entrust such commission to look into this issue and come up with solid solutions to this problems. We no longer could afford to have any pity disputes among us as Sri Lankans. We have wasted our human natural and human recourse for more than 30 years and we have had enough of blood bath. Now is the time to take this country out of those unwanted disputes among us.