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Thinamurasu. They have seen EPDP cadres demanding that people on the streets
and in buses purchase the paper. 195
Pressure on NGOs
Relations between local and international NGOs and the Sri Lankan government
began to deteriorate after the 2004 tsunami, when dozens of new NGOs entered the
country. Many made valuable contributions to reconstruction and rehabilitation, but
in the unregulated wave of new organizations, some were ineffectual or engaged in
corruption or religious proselytizing.
The Sinhalese nationalist JVP political party and its allies in particular grew critical of
the presence of a large number of international NGOs. Because Tamils and Muslims
were among the hardest groups hit by the tsunami, and thus got much (but by no
means all) of the foreign assistance, the JVP and its allies viewed these NGOs with
suspicion. Those groups that provided services in LTTE-controlled areas were
subjected to greater criticism, and were often accused of supporting the LTTE.
As major hostilities between the government and the LTTE resumed in 2006, the
government significantly stepped up its verbal attacks on NGOs, increasingly
accusing them of undermining the government’s war efforts, if not outright
supporting the LTTE. The government has purposely fostered an atmosphere of
distrust and dislike that, according to some humanitarian groups, has placed their
staff members at risk.
Some members of the government have issued direct threats against civil society
groups. In February 2007, for example, Minister for Environment and Natural
Resources Champika Ranawaka of the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU, the Buddhist
monk party in the government coalition), advocated extrajudicial methods to deal
with human rights groups, journalists, and others who criticize the state’s military
strategy. “Those bastards are traitors. We can’t do anything because of wild donkey
freedom in this country,” he told the Ravaya newspaper on February 18. “If those
can’t be handled with existing laws we know how to do it. If we can’t suppress those
195 Human Rights Watch interviews, Batticaloa, March 2007.
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Human Rights Watch August 2007