Harmony to Disharmony: Experience of Idps in Vavunia

Five of us, Revds Keerthi Fernando, Anura Perera, Saman Perera, Jayanath Panditharatne and I went to Vavunia on February 2009 to meet the former students of the College involved in voluntary social work among the IDPs[i] from Vanni in the newly constructed refugee camps. The recent military intervention to eradicate LTTE militancy in Sri Lanka, the Sri Lankan government launched a military approach which has created displacement of civilian population from the warring areas. It is estimated that around 250,000 persons are housed in the IDP camps in a town called Vavunia. Our exposure to the IDP camps and meeting people of all walks of life made me to write this paper.

This paper is a reflection and sharing of the aspirations, longing and the anathema experienced by the people who are in the refugee camps. Describing the details of war, what went wrong and the details of events is not the purpose of this paper. The primary concern is to understand the lostness experienced by the people from their expressive point of view than the visible signs of torment and plight experienced by the IDPs.

People whom we met brought with them the significant questions of life.  Among the questions, which they carry in their hearts, minds, and souls are those, which arise from suffering.  When they were forced to face unspeakable suffering due to war individuals asked: “What is the meaning of this war?” or, “Why me?” or, “Does God really care?” or, “How can a God who loves allow such things to happen?” These questions are among the most troubling which arose from experience of the IDPs. 

People who are housed in the IDP camps in Vavunia were lived in the area called Vanni. Vanni is basically a farm land based on the irrigation system that supported by the tank-based cultivation. People in Vanni supplied major portion of rice consumption, which the staple food in Sri Lanka. It consists of number of highland settlements within forested lands cultivation. Hunting and raising livestock such as water buffalo and cattle is a necessary adjunct to the agriculture. So for the existence of Vanni people, the land played a very big role. According to people from Vanni their lifestyle had created a strong bond between the people and land.

The forced displacement of the civilians to the IDP camps due to the full fledged war between the Sri Lankan government military and the LTTE militants had caused severe traumatic condition to the displaced people. The IDPs say that their life and livelihood has been destroyed. The following expressions emerged during conversations in unexpected situations; “No home here, no peace of mind is here, no happiness either”; “I felt lost”; “no meaning or purpose to my life”; “I considered killing myself”; “we are not wanted, we do not belong.”