CARE funds JVP projects

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 May 2005, 14:32 GMT]
The ultra-nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Perumana’s (JVP), inspite of its hostility towards foreign NGOs, has accepted financial donations from them. According to the JVP, CARE International is one of the institutional and private donors from whom the ultra-nationalist party has received well over Rs100 million for its own post-tsunami reconstruction activities.

The JVP’s Relief Services Force has received funds from CARE for building of 100 houses for resettlement in "Shrama Abhimani Pura" (City of labour dignity), according to a JVP publication.

The bi-monthly bulletine ‘Tissa’ is published by the JVP Tissamaharama Pradesiya Sabha (PS).

The report of CARE’s assistance to the JVP was carried in a centre-page spread in its 2005 February- March edition.

In April, however, the JVP propaganda secretary, Wimal Weerawansa, told a packed audience at a party meeting that they needed to ‘expose the NGO Mafia that is against the land and the country.’

“We should spit on NGOs and stop them from walking on our streets. Donor countries and their NGO agents are holding this country to ransom, telling the government to set up a joint Tsunami relief mechanism with the LTTE,” he said.

Meanwhile, in the wake of the December 26 tsunami, the JVP has been directly collecting contributions for its Relief Services Force. Amidst international shock and sympathy, the JVP had, by mid-January, been able to collect over Rs 100 million for its own projects, the party says.