July 7, 2002	Sunday	Rabi-us-Sani 25,1423

JAFFNA, June 6: Muslims who were hunted out by the LTTE at gun point in 1990 from Jaffna peninsula when the Tamil Tigers took over the region from the Sri Lankan military, are now returning, but are discovering new restrictions put by the Tamil Tigers, it was reported on Saturday.

“We want to continue with the business that we were doing here when we left. But there are new trade restrictions imposed by the LTTE”, says fifty year old Sahib, whose trade is in hardware and who has the Government license to sell iron rods and all hardware material but cannot operate his business in Jaffna because of the LTTE restrictions.

The LTTE having obtained formal permission from the Government to carry out political activities within the region three months ago after the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between the LTTE and the Government in February, have now imposed regulations curtailing trade activities of all non-Tamils. The sale of crabs, prawns, and iron has been prohibited unless they are sold to LTTE agents.

This restriction has badly affected Muslims, once a powerful trade force in the area who are fast returning in large numbers to the area to carry out their trade activities in the region.

According to available statistics around 5,000 Muslims have arrived into the region within the past two months leaving the dismal refugee camps on the Western coast of Puttlam for a region in which the ashes of their homes lie, ruined by war.

“All razed to the ground. We have nothing. We went taking nothing. We have come back with nothing”, says Saladeen, a refugee returnee from a refugee camp in the Anuradhapura region, standing in front of his newly-opened food outlet serving Muslim food.

“This is where I had my hotel 12 years ago. Both the military and the LTTE had occupied it in turn when they took over the region over the past years. I had to spend six lakhs (to get it back into shape. There is no electricity. We have to use the generator. I am one of few lucky people who has relatives abroad”, he says explaining that the money for him to establish his business establishment was provided by his brother working in Saudi Arabia.

For the past three weeks since he opened his hotel he has received a steady flow of customers, most of them Muslims.