Moonrampiddi - story of a coastal village in Vanni
Moonrampiddi coastal village in the Mannar district was created by the displaced people from Jaffna during Sri Lanka military offensives on Jaffna in the 1990’s. About 200 families have made this their home finding security here away from the Sri Lanka military. Another 150 families are presently living here as recently displaced due to the current Sri Lanka military offensives in Mannar. All of the people of this village are therefore displaced over the last two decades due to the Sri Lanka military offensives which as a rule do not spare the civilians.
 Prior to their displacement the people of this village lived in their own ancestral villages enjoying its natural resources as well as the village facilities that they and their ancestors have built over centuries. The contrast between their ancestral villages and their new village cannot be any bleaker. The villagers suffer lack of clean water, housing, medical facilities, and school facilities. Water is distributed to them in bowsers but it is not enough. School buildings are inadequate and are dirtied daily at night by stray animals. Many international agencies who undertook to improve the conditions in the village have abandoned the projects due to Sri Lanka military attacks. The entire village population does not have a single permanent material home. A project to build 50 homes was abandoned without completing a single home. A project for drinking water supply started by an international agency was also abandoned. The village school teaching Year-1 to Year-11 has an enrollment of 495 students. It suffers from many problems typical to many schools in Vanni. As if these bleak conditions in their village are not enough, the livelihood of these villagers are also denied to them. Most of the people of this village depend on fishing; that is why they have chosen to live in this coastal village. The fishermen are unable to go to sea regularly due to fear of attacks by the Sri Lankan Navy. They suffer the very high price of fuel to operate their boats due to blockade of essential items by the Sri Lanka military. They are also unable to sell their catch as much as they could again due to the blockade.
28 March 2008
|
Europe which has a total population of 800 million is made up of 45 language based nation states. South Asia which has a total population of one billion, (1000 million) is comprised of four states. Who is preventing and therefore benefiting by limiting new nation-states in South Asia?
Print this
Email this
more
