The Island newspaper indicated the extent of the suffering faced by the Muslims of northern Sri Lanka, who were expelled thirty years ago and displaced to other areas at gunpoint.
According to the newspaper article, “About 100,000 Muslims were expelled at gunpoint by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in October 1990, and some of them have now been resettled in the controversial Kalaro district in the north of the country.”
The newspaper states that “the majority of Muslims displaced to Butalam have become a marginalized group in society after the forced displacement, and 30 years have passed since the displacement, but people are still in a critical situation in the inappropriate resettlement process.”
It added that “those IDPs whom the government is working to resettle had to face many practical problems and overcome them in the resettlement process, and among the most prominent problems is the shortage of land, which was due to the natural increase in the number of Muslim (displaced) populations.”
