Norway says ready to help revive Sri Lanka talks

Oslo, July 2: Peace broker Norway said today it was ready to help revive talks to end two decades of war in Sri Lanka if the warring parties sought its help.

Norway brokered a 2002 ceasefire between the Sri Lankan government and rebel Tamil Tigers a truce that now lies in tatters.

Sri Lankan and Indian media reported today that the Colombo government had asked Norway to help resume direct talks with the rebels.

''We are ready to resume (mediation efforts) if the government wants us to,'' Norway's special envoy for Sri Lanka, Jon Hanssen-Bauer, told Reuters. ''We are committed to our role as facilitator and we are ready to carry out that role as soon as the parties want us to do that.'' Violence in Sri Lanka has prevented Norwegian diplomats from visiting the northern stronghold of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) for months, but Hanssen-Bauer said they would be willing to go there if security could be assured.

''We are ready to go as soon as there is a guarantee that we can go to Kilinochchi,'' he said.

Hanssen-Bauer and Norway's Development Aid Minister Erik Solheim, who mediated the 2002 truce, met Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse in Geneva on June 15. Hanssen-Bauer described the mood at the meeting as good but declined to elaborate.

Solheim hosted a meeting of diplomats from Sri Lanka's main donors, Japan, Norway, the United States and European Union known collectively as the Co-Chairs in Oslo last week at a time when Sri Lanka's relations with the international community are increasingly strained.

The Co-Chairs urged the government and rebels to restart talks to end the conflict in the island nation that has killed nearly 70,000 people since 1983.

With no winner on the horizon, analysts fear the war could rumble on for years.

Reuters

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