DEPUTY FOREIGN MINISTER VIDAR HELGESEN’S VISIT TO SRI LANKA 20-24 OCTOBER.

A Norwegian Delegation headed by Deputy Foreign Minister Vidar Helgesen will visit Sri Lanka 20-24 October. Mr. Helgesen will travel to Hambantota on Sunday 20 October to meet Hon. Members of Parliament from the district and local authorities. He will also have a meeting with Hambantota Chamber of Commerce. The purpose of the visit to Hambantota is to get a broader understanding of the economic situation in the area and the challenges the people in this part of the country area are facing.

Norwegian Development Co-Operation with Sri Lanka has traditionally focussed on the situation in the Southern part of the country, notably in Hambantota and Moneragela district. Norway has for the last twenty years been assisting the Government of Sri Lanka to improve economic development in this area. Mr. Helgesen will during his visit in Hambantota visit some of the project funded by the Norwegian Government. In addition Mr. Helgesen will acquaint himself with the drought situation in the area and will visit the Lunugamvehera Irrigation Scheme.

Mr. Helgesen has previously been to several other parts the country. During his visit to Sri Lanka this time he will however be travelling to both Hambantota in the south and Jaffna in the north for the first time. He hopes this will give him an increased understanding of people's daily life and the economic situation in both the southern and the northern part of Sri Lanka.

On Monday 21 October the Delegation headed by Mr. Helgesen will have meetings with the Prime Minister, members of the Government’s peace delegation, the Leader of the Opposition and representatives from the civil society and the business community. Mr. Helgesen will also meet with the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM).

The Norwegian Delegation will visit Jaffna and the Vanni Tuesday 22 and Wednesday 23 October. In Jaffna the Delegation will i.a. meet with the Government Agent, the Mayor and representatives from the civil society. Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning Mr. Helgesen will have discussions with the leadership of LTTE in Vanni before he returns to Colombo.

In Colombo on Wednesday the Delegation will again be meeting representatives from the Government’s peace delegation. Mr. Helgesen will also be meeting H.E President Chandrika Bandanaraike Kumaratunga together with Hon. Member of Parliament Mr. Kadirgamar.

The discussions with the Government and the LTTE will mainly focus on the establishment of the Joint Task Force (JTF) and the preparation for the next round of talks in Thailand. Also ongoing problems related to the ceasefire agreement hereunder the tension on the East Coast, will be subject to discussions.

The Norwegian Delegation will in addition to Deputy Foreign Minister Vidar Helgesen, consist of Ambassador Jon Westborg and Second Secretary Tomas Stangeland from the Norwegian Embassy and Special Advisor Erik Solheim, Hans Brattskar and Advisor Lisa Golden from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

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.
Promoting Contact - English programmes for all communities in the East
(January 21, 2011)

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.
Making Connections - The revival of Trincomalee
(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
(January 21, 2011)

Trincomalee is associated in my mind with two individuals, whose life and work continue to provide guidelines for effort. The first was Denzil Kobbekaduwa, who was in charge of the area when I visited in 1988, to check on the schools furniture project. That was the time of the IPKF, and one could sense some tensions, even though in general officers on both sides behaved with perfect conviviality at army headquarters.
Independence Day Celebrations at the Rehabilitation Centres
(January 21, 2011)

I was in Vavuniya on Independence Day, to join in celebrations at a couple of the Rehabilitation Centres. These had been planned by the officials administering the camps under the authority of the Commissioner General of Rehabilitation, but our Confidence Building and Stabilization Measures Project had assisted with the arrangements. Ironically, the main funding we receive, from UNHCR, cannot be used for these youngsters, just as for some strange reason the World Food Programme does not feed them. Fortunately the government is more enlightened and sees these victims of the LTTE’s forced recruitment as deserving of all possible assistance and encouragement.
Returns for the Old and the Recently Displaced
(January 21, 2011)

After the Independence Day celebrations at the Rehabilitation Centres in Vavuniya, I visited a couple of areas that had been resettled. I had been particularly anxious to get to the Rice Bowl in Mannar, since that had been the initial target for rapid resettlement. In the days when the hostile claimed that we intended to keep the displaced permanently in Vavuniya, we were well aware that the President was pressing for rapid cultivation by the returnees.
Promoting Prosperity and Reconciliation in Amparai
(January 21, 2011)

I had not been to Amparai for the whole of 2009, so I was wholly unprepared for the tremendous progress the District had registered since my previous visit in the middle of 2008, as Head of the Peace Secretariat. Then the citizens’ committees we met were still worried about security considerations, about restrictions on movement that restrained economic activity, even about the occasional massacre perpetrated by the tiny groups of Tiger guerillas who had survived the clearing of the East.

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