SRI LANKA: Legacy of war - unemployment and homelessness
humanitarian news and analysis
a service of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Photo: Amantha Perera/IRIN
Damage-strewn landscape years after fighting ended in Sri Lanka's north
COLOMBO, 21 May 2012 (IRIN) - Life is slowly returning to normal in northern Sri Lanka, but three years after a decades-long conflict was officially declared over, jobs and housing are the prevailing concerns of returnees. Most of the estimated 448,000 people displaced before or during 2008 by fighting between government forces and rebels wanting an independent Tamil state have returned to the Northern Province, according to the latest figures from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
Some 13,000 are still living in temporary camps - mostly from areas infested with land mines, which may take a decade or more to clear due to lack of funding.
Nevertheless, the worst seems to be over. “It is hard to believe it has been three years, life has changed so much. During the war, our sole focus was how we were going to survive the next day or the next hour,” said Nishanthan, an orphan in the town of Kilinochchi, which was once an LTTE base.
