Norway ready to continue Sri Lanka peace role
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-11-25 11:51

If the new Sri Lankan government and the Tamil Tigers are willing to continue with Norwegian facilitation in the peace process, Norway would not hesitate to play its role as facilitator, Daily News reported Friday.

Oslo was closely monitoring the political developments in Sri Lanka, a Norwegian Embassy Spokesman was quoted by the paper as saying.

"So far the new government of President Mahinda Rajapakse or the Tamil Tigers has not given any indication on the resumption of peace talks," he said.

"If Norway is invited by both sides to continue with the facilitation in the peace process, new faces are likely to be included from the Norwegian side," he added.

The new Minister of International Development in the Norwegian Government Erik Solheim, the special envoy for the Sri Lankan peace process, is likely to assume a higher profile in a future peace process.

The Sri Lankan government is yet to make its stance on Norwegian facilitation in the peace process. There was no change from the Tamil Tigers' stance with regard to Norwegian facilitation, he added.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels had been fighting against government forces to set up an independent Tamil homeland in the north and east since 1983 until they entered into a Norwegian-brokered peace process in February 2002.

Peace talks between the government and the LTTE aimed at ending the island nation's two-decade civil war, which killed over 64,000 people, stalled in April 2003 after six rounds of talks started in September 2002.

The peace talks was deadlock over the demand by the LTTE rebels for the setting up of an interim power structure for the war-torn north and east of the country.