Norway Sends Special Representative to Sri Lanka

Media Release
Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
09 September 2005

The Norwegian Government is deeply concerned by the continuing violence in Sri Lanka over the past months, which is undermining the Ceasefire Agreement between the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

As facilitator, Norway has sought for the past three weeks to convene a meeting between the parties, at their request, to discuss implementation of the Ceasefire Agreement. We note with regret that the LTTE have not accepted the Norwegian proposal for a venue, while the GOSL has done so.

The Government has decided to send retired Major General Trond Furuhovde, former Head of Mission of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, to Sri Lanka within the next month as its special representative. Major General Furuhovde will consult with both parties on the security situation and the implementation of the Ceasefire Agreement.

Norway will also host an extraordinary meeting of the Sri Lanka co-chairs (the USA, the EU (the European Commission and the UK EU Presidency), Japan and Norway in New York on 19 September. The aim of this meeting is to address the need to strengthen respect for the Ceasefire Agreement in the increasingly difficult security situation.

The Road to Reconciliation, 2010

Investment and Education for Development
(January 21, 2011)

Speech by Prof Rajiva Wijesinha at the BizPact Investment Forum, Public Library Jaffna, January 6^th 2010.
Stability and Confidence for Revitalization - entrepreneurship and education amongst the resettled
(January 21, 2011)

The process of resettlement is proceeding apace now, with well over 120,000 persons having gone back to locations in the Northern Province. Of these the more complex returns were to areas previously under the control of the LTTE in sections of Mannar and Vavuniya and in Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu.
Civil Military Liaison - The key to social progress
(January 21, 2011)

In the long hard haul that the process of resettlement has entailed, perhaps the most remarkable factor is the role played by the military. After the enormous effort involved in defeating the LTTE, there was no respite for the soldiers. Instead they have continued to work at a level of intensity that is sadly not recognized.
Overcoming constrictions and tyranny - The oppression of the LTTE in Mullaitivu
(January 21, 2011)

One reason why I suspect reconciliation will be easier in Sri Lanka than in many places that have suffered conflict is the level of suffering inflicted by the LTTE on the Tamil people. There was also an extraordinary hierarchical system, which gave great advantages to the privileged whilst the others had to serve them unquestioningly.
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There has been so much interest about resettlement and rebuilding in the North that the East has been comparatively neglected. I had not been there for six months myself, which was sad for that was an area I had been in constantly from the eighties onward.
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(January 21, 2011)

Trincomalee has always struck me as a magical place, and I have often wondered whether we might not all have been much better off had President Jayewardene moved the capital there rather than ten miles down the road from Colombo to a place that had no merit, even in his eyes, except for its name. And, even if that idea might be fanciful, our failure over nearly half a decade to develop decent communications, to improve connections between the different areas of Sri Lanka, has struck me as a mark of monumental foolishness, which certainly contributed to the spread of resentment and then terror.
Individual Innovations and Initiative
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Norway Sends Special Representative to Sri Lanka

Media ReleaseRoyal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs09 September 2005

The Road to Reconciliation, 2010

Disclaimer

Media Release
Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
09 September 2005