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Solheim coming today

By V.S. Sambandan

COLOMBO Nov. 16. Norway's Special Envoy for Sri Lanka's peace process, Erik Solheim, is scheduled to arrive in India tomorrow as part of his regular visits to keep New Delhi informed of the progress of the latest attempt to find a negotiated political settlement to the island-nation's decades-long separatist crisis.

Mr. Solheim's scheduled visit to India gains significance as it would be the first after the Norwegian Government put the Sri Lankan peace process on hold "until clarity is re-established'' on the political front.

"We are not going away. We are keeping constant contact with the parties, with the President, the Prime Minister, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the ceasefire monitors,'' Mr. Solheim told The Hindu today before his scheduled departure for India from Oslo. "We will keep the peace process on hold. There is nothing we can do until the power struggle in the south is coming to an end.''

After some "initial naivety'' and the "very good advice given'' by the Indian Government, Norway was "prepared for the long haul''. The former External Affairs Minster, Jaswant Singh, had counselled the Norwegian Government patience, when it started its role as a facilitator in Sri Lanka's peace process.

Asked to comment if he was hopeful that talks would resume, Mr. Solheim said, "it is very, very hard to be either optimistic or pessimistic''. "Politics," he said, "is very impossible to predict. We can predict when a comet would pass by, but not the politics for next week''.

Mr. Solheim, who has been facilitator in the island's peace process since its inception is likely to meet Indian Foreign Ministry officials during his visit. Though the meeting was planned ahead of the island's latest political crisis, Mr. Solheim's scheduled visit gains significance with Norway withholding further participation in the Sri Lankan peace process "until clarity is re-established on the political front''.

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