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Norway must assist our relief effort: Rajapaksa

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka has asked Norway, the official facilitator of the abandoned peace process, to assist in the government’s humanitarian efforts to bring relief to citizens in the north, instead of “through other organisations.”

Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa conveyed this message to Norwegian Minister of Environment and International Development, Erik Solheim, on the sidelines of the 63rd UN General Assembly meeting in New York on Monday.

A statement by the President’s Secretariat said Mr. Solheim met Mr. Rajapaksa, accompanied by Jon Hansen Bauer, the special envoy associated with the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM). The SLMM wound up its mission in January this year after the government abrogated the 2002 Norway-facilitated Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) with the LTTE.

The latest communication to Norway implies that Colombo would not encourage foreign countries in extending any humanitarian assistance. It was immediately not clear if it meant that Norway should not maintain contact with the LTTE.

The President’s Secretariat statement said Mr. Rajapaksa and Mr. Solheim discussed the current developments in Sri Lanka, including Mr. Rajapaksa’s approach towards a “sustainable peace and the need to eliminate terrorism.”

“It was shown that the government’s current policy mirrored the developments taking place in the east, with the defeat of LTTE terrorism there. This was seen as a positive step towards the achievement of Sri Lanka’s overall goal of peace and democracy,” it said.

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