Geographies of human displacement: A study on mass movement of Tamil IDPs during the last phase of armed conflict in Sri Lanka

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.