A Voice For the Voiceless

MISSION

The Advocacy Project seeks to help community-based advocates produce, disseminate and use information, and so become more effective advocates for human rights and social justice

Report from Chedipalayam, February 7, 2005

The following was written by staff members of the Home for Human Rights (HHR)

District:    Batticaloa
Government Agent:   V.Shanmugam
Divisional Secretariat:  Manmunai Thenn Eruvil Pattu, Kaluwanchikudy
Divisional Secretary: S.Baskaran
Village:    Cheddipalayam
Number of Families:  30
Number of Persons:  145
Occupation:    Day laborers (kooli) and clothes washers (dobies)

Cheddipalayam is a village situated about 18 km from Batticaloa on the Batticaloa Kalmunai Road. There had been about 30 families (145 people) living in Cheddipalayam for generations. About 20 families wash clothes in the villages nearby for a living. The remaining families do kooli work (labor work).

On December 6, 1990, when the Sri Lankan army attacked their area, they were displaced and were forced to take shelter in a church at Thettatheevu. After about a month when they returned to their homes, they were surprised to find them occupied by the Sri Lanka Army. Without a place to live, they moved to government land in Cheddipalayam South by the sea, where they have lived for some time in thatched houses. 

In 1991, the Divisional Secretary gave them permanent settlements along the sea. They built cottages on these lands and lived there until 1997 when Mr. Ponn Selvarajah, a Member of Parliament, built for them 30 houses, wells, washing stones, and a water tank. Due to this assistance they were able to carry on their day to day living without any problem. 

Unfortunately, their homes were totally destroyed by the tsunami, taking the lives of three women and a 6-year-old child in the process. The tsunami also injured a 55-year-old man named Murugesu Vinayagamoorthy. 

These people have requested temporary houses and equipment such as an iron box, table, bucket, and washing salts so that they can continue with their occupation. They also requested the STF to vacate their land so that they can resume living there permanently. 

HHR intends to help these families on an interim basis. We will help them to resume their occupation washing clothes by buying for them the necessary equipment.