Abstract:
The resettlement plans in Sri Lanka after tsunami and the ethnic war do
not give any importance to the cultural part of the affected people. The recent war
resettlements in the Batticaloa district had been made by many NGOs, INGOs, and the
government of Sri Lanka. But none of them did notice the violation of human rights of
the affected people in many areas. Though the infrastructure, livelihood and other such
facilities had been given considerable attention, yet the cultural part had been very
badly considered in the said resettlements. In fact, the victims had been forced to forget
their culture, but it is the culture that made them unite in so many ways.
Swiss Village is the village where most of the tsunami affected people had
been resettled with the maximum infrastructure facilities. Though the resettled people
speak Tamil, yet they belong to different races such as Tamil and Burger and different
religions such as Hindu, Roman Catholic and non Roman Catholic. The cultural pattern
of them differ, still they are compelled to live together irrespective of their religion and
race. Similarly, the Tamil community too has been given houses irrespective of their
caste and sub-caste system. They too continue to live. And most of them are finding
the situation very difficult in the post-war scenario.
Thus, this study brings out the positive and the negative effects of the resettled
people and how they try to settle themselves with or without the cultural background
that they had before they were resettled. Also this study will focus whether this
resettlement brought the expected peace and harmony among the resettled victims.
