Sri Lanka to appoint committee for Sinhala, Muslim settlement into North

The Sri Lankan cabinet has decided to appoint a committee to looking into a method for settling Sinhalese and Muslim people into the North, Colombo Page reports.

The government estimates that 5543 houses are needed to settle Sinhalese families, which it states moved to the South during the armed conflict, and over 16,000 houses are needed to resettle Muslim families.

The committee is to be chaired by the president and will include the prime minister, as well as other relevant ministers. 


It comes at a time when Tamils in the North-East have protested against increasing state-sponsored settlement of Sinhala families into historically Tamil areas and the seizing of private lands by the military, with many Tamils continuing to be displaced 7 years after the end of the armed conflict.