The UNP yesterday said that the government was taking credit for a multi-million dollar UN operation spearheaded by the World Food Programme (WFP) to feed nearly 300,000 people accommodated in welfare camps in the northern region.

Former Rehabilitation, Resettlement and Refugees Minister Dr. Jayalath Jayawardena told The Sunday Island that in fact he initiated the UN programme shortly after the then government, with Norwegian mediation, reached an agreement with the LTTE in February, 2002.

Responding to our queries, the MP dismissed a statement attributed to Export Development Minister Prof G. L Peiris at last week’s post Cabinet press conference that the government had to feed a million mouths a day a nothing but a barefaced lie.

He said that several other ministers, including SLFP General Secretary Maithripala Sirisena and Commerce Minister Bandula Gunawardena had claimed that Rs. 250 million a day was being spent to feed IDPs. Gunawardena claimed late July that this would cost the government Rs. 45,000 million over the next six months. Nothing could be further from the truth, Jayawardena said, adding that the international community though being accused of undermining the incumbent administration continued to pour funds.

Sri Lanka should be grateful to the international community for helping the country to feed the displaced and also assisting the resettlement programme, he said. The International Organization for Migration (IOM), UNHCR and other UN agencies were contributors.

The Gampaha District MP said that during his two-year term as the Rehabilitation Minister, the WFP initiated several important programmes, including food-for-education and food for work to help people living in areas both in and outside areas under LTTE control.

"They provided rice, dhal, canned fish, sugar and coconut oil. They also accepted my suggestion to dissolve vitamin A in coconut oil before distribution as many people suffered from night blindness," he said.

He said that the incumbent Resettlement and Disaster Relief Services Minister Abdul Risad Bathiudeen had functioned as his Deputy at that time and would be able to shed light on the WFP operation. Bathiudeen (SLMC/Vanni District), who switched his allegiance to President Mahinda Rajapaksa after the last general election, had been with the UNP led UNF alliance at that time, he said.

He said though recent statements issued by the WFP had clearly contradicted government’s claim, the likes of Prof. Peiris continued to reiterate a lie. The WFP in a statement dated July 14 said that it had received USD 7.4 million (Rs. 833 mn.) from Japan to procure much needed rice and canned fish for IDPs.

It quoted Adnan Khan, WFP Representative in Sri Lanka as saying that the UN agency was facing a shortfall of USD 15.2 million to cover humanitarian needs until the end of this year.

Dr. Jayawardena said that subsequently the WFP declared that it would allocate more funds for Sri Lankan IDPs, while many countries, particularly India, had contributed generously.

He challenged the government to disapprove a WFP claim that it provides essential food items to about 1.2 million people through its emergency feeding and recovery programmes, including food for education, food for work and mother-and-child health and nutrition programme.

He challenged the government to contradict his statement directly or issue a statement through the WFP. "As far as we know the government is not spending on food supplies for the displaced," he said.

He acknowledged that the opposition was slow in countering government propaganda and thereby allowed the state-run media machinery to deceive people.

The food-for-work programme in his time helped farmers to cultivate approximately 25,000 acres of paddy land in the Kilinochchi district alone in the 2002/2003 period. He said that the WFP operation enabled his ministry to return Rs. 150 million to the Treasury in late 2002 or early 2003.

According to him, he received the first assistance on behalf of the government from the then US Ambassador in Sri Lanka Ashley Wills. Along with Japan, the US had been major contributors to the programme though many other countries provided assistance.

He challenged the government to compile a list of donors and their donations. Had they done that they would see for themselves the extent of the international contribution. The ICRC, too, had provided substantial assistance along with many other INGOs, he said emphasizing that the government may disagreed with them on security related issues, ongoing relief operations would have collapsed without their assistance.