The North and East of Sri Lanka were the worst affected provinces during the ethnic conflict. Both areas witnessed death, destruction and displacement and are presently going through phases of rebuilding, reconstruction and development. Sri Lanka has faced numerous disasters and crises, both man-made and natural, has experienced several phases of return, resettlement, rehabilitation and reconstruction with the conflict and tsunami, this paper highlights that there are shortcomings in the planning and response to disasters, which are repeated multiple times. A key issue highlighted in the paper is how the Government and other stakeholders handle return and resettlement. In the Sri Lankan context many Government officials use the terms ‘return’ and ‘resettlement’ interchangeably without much thought to what this means in accordance with international standards. This has resulted in a situation where upon returning to the district of origin, whether a person has returned to one’s own home and land, there is an assumption that the return is complete. This paper demonstrates that the use of terms results in a misrepresentation of ground realities.