Abstract:
The success and sustainability of any type of post-war development and reconciliation process is
highly dependent on its successful mechanism to accommodate the concerns and grievances of all
affected parties. It also urges ensuring equity to all affected parties during these processes. However,
Sri Lanka’s post-war development and reconciliation process has poorly accommodated many
concerns of its ethnic minorities, particularly the Muslims of the northern province. The resettlement
of the forcefully evacuated northern Muslims has continued to be a marginalized subject in the postwar development and reconciliation contexts in Sri Lanka. The primary of objective of this study is
to review the forceful eviction of northern Muslims in the civil war context, and to examine the nature
and the issues of their resettlement in the post-war context. There are number of studies in the related
literature that focused on the resettlement of internally displaced people due to violent ethnic conflict
and civil war in Sri Lanka. However, the majority of them mainly have focused on the displacement
and refugee life of Tamils and their resettlement. There are also several studies that focused on the
displacement and the resettlement of northern Muslims. The majority of these studies, however, have
mainly focused on economic and social perspectives of their refugee life, i.e., on the issues pertaining
to their refugee life in the temporary settlements, relationship with host communities and the related
issues. Prior studies have very rarely focused on the development, post-war development and the
ethnic reconciliation perspectives of the resettlement of the northern Muslims. This study attempts
to fill this gap by addressing the development oriented and ethnic reconciliation-related issues and
challenges in resettling the forcefully evicted northern Muslims to their traditional homelands.
