Inside the broken land

AFTER enduring a vicious war, the loss of a child and six months in a tent, Nithia Rubin just wants to go home.
She was trapped between the retreating Tamil Tiger rebels and the Sri Lankan army in the bloody closing stages of Sri Lanka's civil war. In May, days before the Tigers were defeated, tragedy struck when a volley of shells hit the sandy bunker where Mrs Rubin and her family were hiding. Her two-year-old daughter died after being hit by shrapnel.
"At the end there were dead bodies everywhere and it seemed everything was burning," Ms Rubin says.
There was little time to mourn. At the war's end, Mrs Rubin and her family were taken to the vast refugee camp at Manik Farm, where she has been living ever since with her four-year-old son, Niskar, and husband, Arul.
Many of their neighbours have similar stories. Sellaiya Raju's six-month-old daughter Priya was killed and his wife badly injured by shelling less than a month before the war finished. "I was not even able to bury my baby," he said.
It is six months since the guns fell silent in Sri Lanka and those kept behind barbed wire at Marik Farm are finally being allowed to go home. About 4000 refugees are leaving the camp every day and Mrs Rubin and Mr Raju hope their turn will come soon.
However, many who return are finding their villages devastated.
Access to the war-torn towns and villages of northern Sri Lanka has been heavily restricted and little is known about what awaits Tamil war refugees on their return.
However, The Age was able to accompany the Prime Minister's special envoy to Sri Lanka, John McCarthy, on a visit to communities being resettled in war-affected areas.
Mr McCarthy's visit to the town of Vattankandal, on the north-west coast of Sri Lanka, revealed the scale of the reconstruction challenge.
Hardly a building was left unscathed by the fierce fighting that raged between the Tamil Tigers and Government troops in the area last year. Churches, government buildings and schools lie in ruins. Few houses have been left with a roof and many have been completely flattened. Almost every wall in the town has gaping holes or bullet marks.
About 120 families have been resettled at Vattankandal over the past 10 days. Some families have used tarpaulins and corrugated iron handed out by the government and aid agencies to construct crude lean-tos up against their bombed-out homes.
The village is surrounded by minefields. Yellow tape has been used to demarcate the many areas surrounding the village contaminated by landmines. Red signs with a skull and crossbones warn locals of dangerous places and resettlers are being instructed about the dangers.
The hazard posed by mines was underscored when three Sri Lankan soldiers died during de-mining operations last week in the Mulliativu district of northern Sri Lanka.
Mine danger has prevented 25 families in Vattankandal from going back to their homes. They are living rough in a badly damaged school building while de-mining teams continue the painstaking work of clearing contaminated areas.
One pregnant woman living at the school said she was being forced to spend a grant to rebuild her house on day-to-day survival.
Others complained about a lack of transport. Aid workers said this meant children were not able to get to school.
The Government has ambitious plans to re-establish basic services and rebuild infrastructure in the nation's north.
There are places were the resettlement program has made rapid progress. In Thunkkai district, 50 kilometres north-east of Vattankandal, about 2000 people have been resettled in the past few weeks and about 30,000 more will arrive in the next few months.
Logeswaran Saroja arrived back at her home in Thunkkai late last month, having been forced to abandon it nearly 18 months ago. Her family was forced to retreat with the Tamil Tigers and was shifted 13 times more before arriving at Manik Farm. Even though her house has no roof, she is delighted to be out of the camp.
"Little by little these people are restarting their lives," said Emelda Sukumar, a government official involved in resettlement in Thunkkai.
But the stakes are high. Resentment among Sri Lanka's Tamils could build rapidly if the resettlement and reconstruction process gets bogged down.
After living through years of war, and months in a refugee camp, many Tamil families will be tempted to leave the country rather than rebuild their lives in a war-ravaged village.
Unless there is a rapid return to normal life for Sri Lanka's war refugees, more boats could set sail for Australia loaded with those hopeful of asylum.