Poster

[1Z125] Sri Lankan government's actions regarding the residential areas of displaced persons by the conflict: Case of Muthur, Trincomalee

*Sho YAMADA¹ (1. Graduate School of Agricultural Science, Tohoku University)

Keywords:post-conflict, rural development, reconstruction, IDP, refugee

Many armed conflicts have occurred in developing countries, resulting in the displacement of rural residents. Reconstruction of rural areas in post-conflict settings is crucial for rebuilding the livelihoods of those displaced people. In Sri Lanka, the conflict between the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) and Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) lasted from 1983 to 2009. In Mutur, Trincomalee District, the fighting intensified in 2006, forcing rural residents to flee the area. After conflict ends, these displaced people have returned to their original lands and are rebuilding their livelihoods. However, issues such as the requisition of residents' land by the government have been reported. This raises important questions about whether these actions were taken by the GoSL with the intent of seizing enemy land, or whether they were the result of confusion over property rights caused by the conflict and prolonged displacement. Answering this question is essential for examining the role, capacity, or intention of the government involved in the conflict for the post-conflict rural development. To address this question, I organized the GoSL’s trends concerning land in Mutur based on interviews I conducted in 2019 and secondary materials. The results confirmed that land requisition by the military and for a coal-power project was ongoing as of 2019. Furthermore, it was confirmed that the coal power project was initiated shortly after the residents of Mutur began their evacuation. Although the project was halted in 2016, multiple households still reported land issues as of 2019. Additionally, it was reported that the project was planned to restart as a solar power project in 2023, suggesting the government's involvement in land issues. This implies that post-conflict rural reconstruction might be challenging when the government itself was involved in the conflict.