Resettlement to begin in Meeravodai

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 July 2003, 12:07 GMT]
The Batticaloa branch of the Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) has begun to resettle internally displaced Tamils from the village of Meeravodai inValaichenai district, Batticaloa under the North East Community Restoration and Development Project (NECORD), sources in Batticaloa said.

Meeravodai is a Tamil border village located at the edge of the lagoon 32km northwest of Batticaloa town, west of Valaichenai. Several muslim villages lie close to Meeravodai.

Close to 350 Tamil families used to live in this historic Tamil village. The village had a popular Pillaiyar Temple, Kannaki Amman Temple, Murugan Temple where hindus from other parts of Batticaloa congregated to attend festivals. In addition, the village had a Government Mixed school, a Village Development Council building and several houses built of concrete.




During the 1990 with the onset of Eelam War II the Sri Lanka Security forces assisted by Muslim Home Guards began a campaign of attacking border villages housing Tamils in the east, especially villages in the Batticaloa district. Meeravodai was one such village completely destroyed in this violent campaign.

By the end of 1990 all Meeravodai Tamil residents were displaced and have found in shelter in refugee camps in Valaichenai, Karuvakerni and Kannan Kiramam.

A new Sri Lanka Army (SLA) camp built by the side of the Meeravodai Government School still housing SLA soldiers provide security to Muslim villages around the area.





In recent years, some of the refugees have returned to live in Meeravodai in sections of the village away from the SLA camp and farther side of Muslim villages.

Meeravodai refugees said that the Rs.5million allocated for their resettlement under the NECORD project would provide them with housing facilities and self-employment assistance allowing them to resume normal lives.

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