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Norway Acts Only as Impartial Party for Sri Lanka: Norwegian Official
Norway was only acting as an impartial role for the war-torn Sri Lanka and would not impose itself on any of the parties involved in the ethnic conflict of the country, a senior Norwegian official has said lately.
Norwegian Deputy Foreign Minister Raymond Johansen was quoted by the state-run Daily News as saying that Norway has been asked by Sri Lankan President Kumaratunga and the leadership of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to take on the role as an impartial third party in assisting and facilitating the parties towards meeting and finding a solution to the country's long-running ethnic conflict.
He was clarifying a report which appeared in The Island, a local newspaper published on Monday on an Indian TV interview with Norwegian envoy Erik Solheim, who met with LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran in his jungle hideout in the north of the country early November. Following their meeting the LTTE offered unconditional talks with the government in a bid to end the 17- year ethnic war.
Johansen said that it is not their role to find a solution to the conflict. That must be the role and responsibility of the parties during negotiation.
Solheim only wanted to point out the fact that there are a number of different options. He did not propose any particular model or any specific solution to the ethnic conflict in the country, he said.
The Norwegian official emphasized that a solution to the ethnic conflict must be found on the basis of respecting Sri Lanka's territorial integrity and a separate state for minority Tamil in the north and east of the country where the LTTE have been fighting against government forces since 1983 is not an option.
Norway started its peace efforts for Sri Lanka last year but so far no tangible progress seems to have been achieved. The Norway-backed peace process has reached an impasse after the one-month unilateral ceasefire declared earlier this month by the LTTE and the subsequent government's response to continue fighting until the possible peace talks with the LTTE make headway toward the solution to the ethnic conflict in the country.
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