Photo Credit: Refugees International
08/21/2006

For the largely Muslim population of the eastern Sri Lankan town of Mutur the past six weeks have been a nightmare of forced displacement and vulnerability. Over 45,000 people originally fled fighting in early August between the Sri Lankan army and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). They were then forced back in a government-organized return that removed them from temporary shelters, however inadequate, in safe locations with basic services to temporary shelters with virtually no services in what remains a tense zone of potential conflict. With the return a fait accompli, there is an urgent need for material assistance and protective action by the government and international agencies for the displaced people of Mutur.