For over thirty years Sri Lanka has been gripped in a crisis of protecting and preserving its sovereignty from those who have taken a course of violence and terror to divide the country. This has been at a horrendous cost to all the communities, particularly to the people of the Northern Province. As an end to the bitter conflict is in sight, the biggest challenge for sustainable peace and development of the country will be to bring back the Tamil community to the main stream of nation building from having a feeling of being marginalized. Today the majority of the Tamil civilians have the perception of being physically dislocated, socially sidelined, culturally confused and politically disoriented as they have been on the run for safety.

Rehabilitation signifies a generative forging of new life out of the ruins of the old, in which, immediate survival problems become overlain with the need for adjustments to emerging circumstances of relative peace. In this process, those who have been disempowered and dispersed by violence should begin to prioritize future goals with assurance of a means for achieving them. In post-war, when survivors do not have a stake in making adjustments for re-forming relationships, and to take control of their lives, with the help of the civil authority, in areas that were hitherto under the control of the rebel forces, the rehabilitation process itself is likely to fail and the people will come under pressures for renewed conflict.

The war in Sri Lanka has also devastated the housing and infrastructure in many parts of the country, and the Northern Province in particular, the state services and civil administrative structures are largely dysfunctional. Priorities for reconstruction of the war-torn areas will be defined but, one has to avoid decisions being guided solely by self serving partisan criteria for supremacy in political contests. Also, at the government bureaucratic policy and advisory level, reconstruction is largely be equated with developing war-damaged infrastructures. Therefore, search for donors and contracting out massive projects will become the major reconstruction and rehabilitation focus in the country in the immediate to long term. Consequently, the need for a separate effort for creating a secure environment of equity and social justice could be underplayed or relegated to the back burner on the assumption that such an environment is the likely spill over effect from massive infrastructural development projects.

Engaging people in their future:- War affected people will have to be helped to focus in their future without reminiscing in the past. The Mahatma Gandhi Centre believes that creating a socio-political environment to regain confidence for interethnic interactions, societal harmony for co-existence and reinvigorating rural economic wellbeing of people directly affected by the war is of paramount importance, and it should

take a faster tract or at least should go parallel with infrastructural reconstruction.

Thus, the main thrust of reconstruction and rehabilitation will have to be a holistic programme for creating that new environment of self reliance and interethnic trust as a platform for mobilizing and coordinating collective efforts towards rebuilding a peaceful and prosperous Sri Lanka. Specifically, the programme should aim at:-

* Encouraging people to organize under interest-based activities that can contribute directly to development of their immediate localities

* Bringing every piece of arable land in the village under appropriate crop rotation and husbandry practices to maximize production efficiency and reducing reliance of chemical inputs

* Generating a source of renewable energy to replace fossil energy currently used for varying needs ranging from cooking fuel to fueling farming operations

* Narrowing down the rural-urban disparity by improving connectivity for sharing knowledge and providing access to all service entitlements.

Post-war reconstruction: International economic and diplomatic communities are likely to play a major role in rebuilding of the war-ravaged areas but, in this effort securing local citizen’s support will be most crucial. In the Northern Province while some people have continued to live in their homesteads under various forms security threats and dysfunctional civil order during the entire conflict, a large number of them have lived as refugees in temporary camps, displaced from their villages. Therefore, rebuilding people’s lives on the original sites will minimize cost, save time, and prevent unnecessary conflict between the people and the government. As power of devolution must satisfy and cut across varying ideologies, social groups, time periods and cultures it is bound to become the centre of fierce debate in the country before normalcy is restored but, the people cannot wait. However, the process of reconciliation in the country can be made easier if the afflicted people are shown visible evidence of change in their immediate localities in the shortest possible time.

A reconstruction strategy must be versatile and flexible to accommodate changing demands ranging from basic needs for immediate relief of those who have encountered various forms of physical and mental suffering and destruction to long-term investments in activities that eventually will rehabilitate people’s livelihoods and restore country’s economic base. However, when people return to their pre-war areas for settlement efforts should first be directed towards mobilizing the full use of existing productive capacities in those areas as a measure providing for their basic needs. Therefore, emphasis has to be on agriculture and land-based development and supported by quick transactional facilities that will bring government and other services closer to them. It is for these reasons the Mahatma Gandhi Centre is advocating establishment of village administrative units or Gramarajya, which are akin to Mahatma Gandhi’s Panchayati Raj system of administration. This is intended to kick start development activities simultaneously in all parts of the war affected area, with the direct involvement of the affected people, thereby reducing interference of external forces competing for scarce resources and avoid villages being drawn into wasteful politically motivated projects.

Development strategies: Development can constitute the following four interlinked activities:-

* Formation of Gramarajya

* Back to land: maximizing land productivity

* Renewable energy and resource conservation

* Skill Improvement and public awareness

a) Formation of Grama Rajya: Using available or newly created digitized data base from primary and secondary sources and appropriate Information Management techniques, existing Grama Niladhari (GN) or Village Officer units in the Northern Province can be delineated. From land registry data and personal identification information collected from the displaced people (living as IDPs) a cross match can be carried out to validate home ownership locations and possible post-war resettlement population distribution patterns in the Northern Province. While this exercise is ongoing to resettle people in their respective villages of origin, formation of Gramarajya should become mandatory wherever a GN unit has voting population above 400. People of each GN unit will register to form voluntary interest groupings: Heritage, Youth, Women, Food Production and Public Service to advance respective village development. Representatives elected by voters registered under each interest group will constitute the village administrative council (Gramarajya) and be responsible for formulation of a village development plan encompassing varying interests and also implement this plan within finances made available in phases of priority.

b. Back to land – maximizing land productivity: The economy of the Northern Province is primarily agriculture based but due to many years of conflict land cultivation was abandoned. Land clearing and rehabilitation for re-cultivation will be faster if every Gramarajya takes this on as a Post-War Food for Work (FFW) Programme in the respective areas of jurisdiction. This can be followed by distribution of farm inputs such as seeds, fertilizer etc as appropriate for the two growing seasons. Crop specialization and land use intensification options (as appropriate) will be made available to the farmers under the Gramarajya Food Production Programme which will also encourage peoplised outlets (Cooperative Kiosks) for marketing village (specialized) products.

Renewable energy and resource conservation:- This activity is meant to reduce dependency on fossil based energy sources, and replace it with renewable energy sources particularly to cater for domestic and agricultural needs. Fast growing tree species such as Gliricidia sepium is well adapted to the Northern Province, and every household within a Gramarajya will be encouraged to grow gliricidia on the fence lines. Each Gramarajya will undertake to have 5-10ha Gliricidia blocks of Renewable Energy Banks (REB) strategically positioned as a dedicated energy source for the village. Harvested wood from regular coppicing will be a source of cooking fuel while the leaves will serve as the N and organic nutrient source for crops or as an enriched livestock feed. When REBs are established on village peripheries there is a possibility of a cluster of villages cooperating to expand the size of the REB by combining the land areas allocated by each village for this purpose. Establishing REBs can also be an activity for FFW.