Protesting Sri Lankan tsunami refugees occupy government building

The occupation forced the closure of the Kalmunai municipal council, the area health department and the urban development authority. It ended on March 1, after Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse, via a special satellite communication link, promised protestors that they would be provided permanent housing within three months.

Because the government has banned all new construction within a 65-metre “buffer zone” from the shore, over 400 mainly poor Muslim fishing families have been forced to live in sub-standard temporary accommodation. Most of them are housed in huts made from tin sheets and on private land donated by people in the area. Not a single house has been built for the refugees and some of the landowners now want their property back.

The protest won wide support from Muslim, Tamil and Sinhala people in the area and was backed by a hartal (local general strike and shop closure) on February 27, which shut down Kalmunai town and bazaars in the adjoining areas of Maruthamunai and Sainthamaruthu. Not a single politician, either from the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) or opposition parties, visited the protest.

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http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/mar2006/tsun-m09.shtml