Is the North a coveted area or mere jungle?
Even more contentious than upgrading the camps is the government’s commitment to returning people to their homes, once the fighting ends. Tamils are deeply suspicious of how the military has depopulated much of the north, known as the Vanni, during its two year campaign and warn that majority Sinhalese could muscle in to what was once a breakaway state under the LTTE, which has fought since 1983 for an independent homeland in the northeast. Government officials say they aim to resettle 80 percent of displaced Tamils by the end of the year, once the battlefields are demined. A similar program in Sri Lanka’s East, where roughly 200,000 were displaced before the military defeated the LTTE in 2007, has already resettled 185,000 people, says Rajiva Wijesinha, head of the government’s peace secretariat. He dismisses the suggestion that migrants covet the undeveloped area. “As far as the Southerners are concerned, the Vanni is the jungle. It’s always been seen that way,” he says. Sri Lanka ha
