Lanka to verify Norwegian media report of embassy aiding LTTE

Norwegian newspaper had claimed in a report that staffers of the Norwegian embassy in Colombo have helped around 12 such people so far.

Sri Lanka has asked its mission in Oslo to check the veracity of a report in the Norwegian media that claimed that the embassy of Norway here had helped LTTE members escape the island.

Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten had claimed in a report that staffers of the Norwegian embassy in Colombo have helped around 12 such people so far.

An External Affairs Ministry spokesman here,who did not wish to be named,said the Sri Lankan mission in Oslo had been asked to verify the media report.

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The Aftenposten report said that “staff members in the Norwegian embassy in Colombo have helped approximately 12 people so far,purchasing flight tickets,driving some to the airport and issuing visas at short notice both for emigrants and those who had already escaped from Sri Lanka”.

Norway facilitated peace between the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE from the year 2000 culminating in the February 2002 ceasefire accord between the government and the LTTE.

Some eight rounds of face to face talks between the LTTE and the government were held in international capitals ranging from Bangkok to Berlin between 2002 and 2006.

The Norwegians came in for high criticism during the process for their appeasement of the LTTE despite many violations of the ceasefire by it. Reacting to the Aftenposten report,Norwegian Minister of International Development,Erik Solheim had defended the action,saying there is a long tradition in Norway for helping people at risk and they had a humanitarian obligation to assist.

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Solheim was the Norwegian peace envoy who brokered the accord between the two warring sides in Sri Lanka.