$250,000 for the Tamils

M.I.A. aka Mathangi "Maya" Arulpragasam put out a message on her Facebook fan page last night. "BIGThankyou2 ROSKILDE for donating $250, 000 for helping the tamil people, and recognising their struggle tonite. i love you!"

Roskilde Festival (Denmark) is the largest North European culture and music festival and has existed since 1971. A non-profit organisation consisting of about 25 full-time employees and thousands of volunteers. Each year, The Roskilde Festival Charity Society, which is the association behind Roskilde Festival, ensures that the profits from the festival are donated directly to humanitarian and cultural purposes.

Headline acts for Roskilde Festival 2011 are the Artic Monkeys, Iron Maiden, Kings of Leon, Mastodon, P.J Harvey, Portishead, The Strokes and our very own M.I.A.

Last night (Friday 1st July) M.I.A. stepped onto Orange Stage at Roskilde Festival. The festival has chosen the Tamil people as the recipients of a donation of 250,000 US dollars from The Roskilde Festival Charity Society.  But the revolutionary pop icon’s involvement in Roskilde Festival does not end there. M.I.A. has agreed to hand-pick a project to which The Roskilde Festival Charity Society will donate 250,000 US dollars. M.I.A. is happy that she can help the poor and tormented people from the island kingdom.

“I want to thank Roskilde Festival Copenhagen for the brave gesture of donating $250, 000 to bringing help and justice to the Tamil people.  Apart from the money, the acknowledgment of the injustice suffered by the Tamil people itself is impressive and huge for me.

I want to donate the money to Tamil victims and witnesses of war crimes and a systematic genocide it must be for their legal rights and justice. Many of the recent refugees will be important witnesses to what happened. We need to be able to use the money also for advocacy for the rights of these people.”