Lanka invites Norway to revive talks with Rebels

Colombo, July 1: Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has made a fresh invitation to the Norwegian peace brokers to help revive the stalled peace process and explore the possibility of resuming direct talks with the Tamil Tiger rebels.

The Colombo-based Sunday Times newspaper today reported that Basil Rajapaksa, the Senior Advisor to President, contacted top Norway's International Development Minister Erik Solheim over the phone last Sunday and conveyed that ''the government was now willing to facilitate a visit to Colombo by Norway's special peace envoy Jon Hanssen Bauer''.

''This was for Mr Bauer to travel to Kilinochchi and meet leaders of the LTTE. This was to enable Norway to continue its initiatives to ascertain the possibility of resuming peace talks,'' the media report said.

Claiming that the message to Norway was conveyed on behalf of Mr Rajapaksa, the media report said Mr Bauer had already renewed his visa from the Sri Lankan Embassy in Oslo and was due in the coming week or two.

President Rajapaksa's fresh invitation to the Norwegian facilitators to revive their effort was made exactly a day before the meeting of the donor Co-Chairs in Oslo, where they critically reviewed the current situation in the country.

Although Norway did not issue a formal statement after the two-day deliberations by the top-ranking members of the Co-Chairs, reports from Oslo indicate that their critical assessment on number of issues included the political situation, the security situation, human rights, the plight of war-displaced civilians, abductions and deteriorating law and order situation.

The government and the LTTE met last in October 2006 in Geneva and the prolonged suspension of direct talks thereafter has led to the ongoing undeclared war between the two sides. Since December 2006, over 4000 people have been killed and over 300,000 people faced internal displacement in the Eastern Batticaloa district.

UNI

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