Speech #990023990

Jenkins vehemently denies providing any aid to MISURA. the major military arm of the Miskitos. However. Congressional staff members and Catholic Rel!ef Service workers who have visited the area contend that aid from FOA and others has the effect of keeping the refugees directly on the border (rather than north of the border where the United Nations has bona fide refugee camps) and thus of sustaining MISURA base camps. Further doubts about the ultimate destination of the aid are fueled by advertisements such as one which appeared in a FOA Newsletter last fall. which appealed for "cash contributions." for "a large airplane." for "boats and outboard motors." and for such militarilyoriented equipment as radios. walkietalkies and a satellite dish. Friends of the Americas is one of the better known groups in large part due to Its leadership: Director Woody Jenkins. a Louisiana State Representative who resigned the Democratic National Committee in 1980 to campaign for Reagan. also now serves as secretary of the Conservative Caucus research branch and as the director of the Council for National Policy. Mr. Jenkins (whose wife Diane is codirector) was the dinnerchairman of the Nicaraguan Refugee Fund (see below). which hosted President Reagan April 15. International Relief Friendship Foundation Funded largely by Reverend Moons UnifIcation Church. the IRFF in the last year has shipped 1.000 pounds of clothing and seven tons of food and medicine to Miskito Indian refugees in Honduras. The group denies providing any aid to the military arm of the Miskitos. and asserts that much of the aid has gone to children. According to the director of IRFF. the organization was started in 1976 with a $225.000 grant from the Unification Church. 90 percer. of their present annual budget of under $20.000 still comes from the Church.