While the Sri Lankan government has presented that Mutur is cleared for displaced muslims who have moved back, various sources in Sri Lanka suggest that the displaced communities are being forced back into Mutur as part its propaganda.

Right now Kantale Muslim IDPs are force to go back to Mutur and Thopur. Many of us see this as part of the government propaganda of winning the war. Today alone they have send over 100 buses to transfer Kantale IDPs back to Mutur and there is heavy government media presence in Kantale (where were all these buses and attention on the 04^th of August when the Mutur civilians decided to walk towards Kantale, one journalist questioned).

A local NGO staff who took photographs of people being forced to move from camps has been assaulted and arrested by the Sri Lankan military.

Some civil society members called the Defense Ministry with regard to the security issues of returnees and the ministry’s response was that:

1. Mutur and Thopur are cleared by the military for the people and the civilians should go back now. The defense ministry representative also told that the Government ministers are going to be there with returnees “reassuring” their safety. We see this forceful return as a military strategy mainly to give morale boost to the army. The government clearly wants to use IDPs as human shield by transporting them back to a potential war zone.
2. Defense ministry also stated that it is a disgrace for the government to keep Mutur Muslims in Kantale as IDPs. Government clearly doesn’t want Kantale to become another Puttalum (where the north evicted Muslims are in the last 16 years). The publicity they gain by resettling the IDPs in Mutur overshadows the civilian security issues.
3. They also said it is an INGO+NGO agenda to keep the Mutur Muslims as permanent IDPs in Kantale for their fundraising purposes.

There were 72 Mutur displaced families at Al Hikma (known as Camp-98). This camp was run by Rural Development Foundation (RDF). On Thursday night IDP families were given notice by the Mutur Pradesha Shaba Vice Chairman ( Jamil Gafoor) and Kandale police that they should go back to Mutur by Friday morning. They have also been told that the school keys have to be handed over to Kandale GS by Friday noon. The IDP families were further warned that their access to relief including water will be stopped by Friday.

On Friday morning 24 families decided to move back to Mutur and got into buses provided by the government. Rest of the families considering the security situation in their villages stayed back. Around 3.00pm (Friday) Kandale DS and the OIC of Thampalagamum police station stormed into Camp-98 and ordered IDPs to get into buses that they brought. Few families that refused to move were forced (some were physically dragged) and the police threw their meager possession on to the street. It was raining heavily at this moment.

Currently 03 families from this camp remain in Kantale and they have sought shelter in the neighborhood. Two of these families have children who got injured when Multi-Barrels fall onto Nathvathul Ulama Arabic School in Mutur on 3^rd of August.

IDPs in Kandale have complained that the DS and Trincomalee GA have refused to send water from national water board today, which is a move to cut their access to drinking water. NGOs have been asked to move from Kandale to Mutur which will eventually remove these IDPs access to dry- rations as well.