Sri Lanka: ambitious plan to rebuild 'ground zero' in war with Tamil Tigers

The revival of Jaffna hinges, however, like so much else here, on politics. President Mahinda Rajapaksa's landslide victory left a bitter taste in Jaffna. Voters here largely stayed away from the polls or voted for the challenger, former Army chief Sarath Fonseka, who has since been arrested on charges of conspiring against the president. Many minority Tamils fear that the government has a Sinhalese agenda that will further marginalize them.

Douglas Dev­­a­n­­anda, min­ister of social services and the leader of Jaffna's largest political party, warns that the president's poor showing in Jaffna will mean fewer local demands will be met. "If I had got more [votes] in the election, I could have convinced the president" to make concessions, he says in an interview at his office, a converted movie theater packed with armed guards.

For many Tamils, a pressing concern is the resettlement of about 70,000 refugees who were displaced in the final stages of the war and have returned to Jaffna in recent months. Many are still unable to reclaim their houses because they lie inside buffer zones around military installations.

Read why the well-being of refugees is central to Sri Lanka's future.

Jaffna's shriveled population poses another challenge, as it may slow growth and will reduce representation in Parliament when the electoral map is redrawn, probably next year.

In 1981, the last year that a census was taken, the city and its eponymous district had nearly 900,000 residents. Its population is roughly half that now, as Tamil residents have fled to countries such as India, Canada, and Britain, or elsewhere in Sri Lanka.

The Tamil diaspora, once an ample source of funding for the LTTE, is unlikely now to contribute to rebuilding Jaffna because it would mean partnering with a government they loathe.

In the recesses of a half-finished house, a Tamil fisherman sits with his family and shows a photo of his son in a school uniform. The man, who gave only his nickname, Pottayah, hasn't seen his son since the LTTE marched him off to fight.

After escaping the war zone last April, then spending six months in a government camp, Pottayah and his wife and five other children were bused back to Jaffna. But their home sits inside what is now a military zone. In December, Mr. Devananda told families from his village they could return in four months, though the pledge may be less certain after the election.

For now, the family is squatting in an abandoned house made of exposed cinder blocks. Pottayah longs for his life at sea, hauling fish from the rich waters around Jaffna.

"I need to be near the shore to feel that I'm home. It doesn't smell right here, I can't smell the sea," he says.

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