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January 13, 2008
Continue with Norway's Help for Peace, Donors tell Sri Lanka

Colombo
Disturbed by Sri Lanka's rapid slide into a full-scale war, international donors have asked the government to continue with Norwegian facilitation and accept monitoring of human rights abuses by the United Nations.

The co-chairs of the donors conference held in Tokyo in 2003, namely the US, EU, Norway, Japan and Britain, met here Saturday, and urged the Sri Lankan government to finalise a sustainable devolution plan to solve the Tamil question. They also requested it to allow them to meet the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) at their headquarters in Kilinochchi.

The co-chairs expressed "deep concern" over the human rights situation and sought a monitoring system with an appropriate role for the UN in it.

They said they would like to see Norway continue as the facilitator of the peace process, which lay in a shambles after the Sri Lankan government abrogated the truce pact with the LTTE Jan 3.

The Sri Lankan government has been consistently opposing Norwegian facilitation, and refusing permission to the UN to set up a field human rights monitoring office in the country. It has also banned foreign missions, including the co-chairs, from going to Kilinochchi to meet the LTTE's leadership.

Interestingly, while the co-chairs, including the US, seemed to be soft on the LTTE in the Colombo statement, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had come out with a very strong statement on the LTTE and sought public cooperation to track down its operatives.

January 13, 2008 

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