Abstract:
Though human displacement often refers to loosening of the particular territory or
physical dislocation, either due to human or natural disasters, its geographical reading is
essentially wider and deeper. It is a phenomenon of migration linked to the concepts of
place, space and time, linked to the question of mobility - who moves, where and why? It
is a fact that the people and their activities are rooted in certain places. However from the
geographical perspective, it implies that displacement is not only physical and material
dispossession, but also they are being uprooted, de-cultured and unfixed. Hence an
interesting dimension of the varied problems associated with human displacement is
^essentially a Geographical because Nation States, Borders, and Displaced People would
belong to a discourse of conventional geopolitics.
During the first five months of 2009, Sri Lanka experienced unprecedented in-flow of
IDPs into the government controlled areas, as never before. The intensity of this influx of
conflict induced internal displacement was much greater during the above period when
comparing against the entire 30 year long period of conflict. This was marked as one of
the most tragic humanitarian and political concerns at both local and international levels.
The armed conflict and its worst agonies are now a thing of the past in Sri Lanka.
Nevertheless the impact of human displacement on the society have created several new
geographical issues and challenges due to change of the demographic map and the human
settlement patterns including the soicio-political implications such as post-conflict
symptoms among women and children in the areas liberated from the clutches of the
terrorism. In the light of the above, this study basically attempts to put the already
globalized issue of conflict induced displaced people of Sri Lanka into a geographical
context with special reference to the mass movement of Tamil IDPs, during the last phase
of the armed conflict.
The main body of the data was collected from semi structured interviews and using
other qualitative and qualitative techniques at the so called ‘Menikfarm transitional
Villages’ in Northern Sri Lanka. The salient characteristics of mass movement of these
Vanni Tamils during the last phase of the conflict are associated with their displacement
cycle, pattern and process of their displacement history, spatial and temporal distribution of
their settlements during the conflict, including their lived experience of displacement under
the repressive and brutal regime of LTTE. Furthermore, the present issues and challenges
of the Vanni Tamil IDPs in Northern Sri Lanka will be put into a geographical analysis
that would eventually be of immense importance to the policy makers engaged in
addressing such issues in the post-conflict Sri Lanka.
