WFP, TEEDOR help Muslims resettle in Mullaithivu

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 November 2003, 10:40 GMT]
Muslims who returned to Mullaithivu after a decade began rebuilding their homes and clearing their lands for cultivation with the assistance of the World Food Program (WFP) and the Thamil Eelam Economic Development Organisation (TEEDOR) of the Liberation Tigers, sources in Kilinochchi said.

Twenty-five families that left Mulliyawalai, a village west of Mullaithivu town, in 1990 returned last week from Puttalam where they had been living in refugee camps since their displacement.

Fifteen families were engaged in farming before they were displaced from Mullaithivu. The WFP gave them farming implements to start clearing their lands and the TEEDOR helped them build temporary shelters to resettle, sources said.

Three families that had shops in the Mullaithivu town have opened their businesses. The others, also engaged in trade, have started their businesses, according to sources in Mullaithivu.

The town and its suburbs were garrisoned for more than six years by the Sri Lanka army. The Liberation Tigers overran the camp in 1996 and have de-mined it since then.

“We welcome all the Muslims who are returning to their homes in Mullaithivu. We will provide all assistance to them for rebuilding their lives here. They are very much part of our society. This is their land too”, said Mr. K. Navaneethan, an official of the Federation of Fisheries Societies in Mullaithivu.