Govt team to meet Norwegian envoy

Manjula Fernando

COLOMBO: In a move to straighten things out after the Tuesday's arbitrary statement on peace talks by Norwegian Minister Erik Solheim in Brussels, Government Chief Peace Negotiator Minister Nimal Siripala De Silva and Foreign Secretary S. Palihakkara will meet Norwegian Ambassador Hans Brattskar in Colombo today.

Government Defence Spokesman Minister Keheliya Rambukwella said Minister De Silva and Palihakkara will take up the irregular manner in which the matter was handled by the Norwegian envoy sans any consultations with the Government.

"The Government is highly disturbed with regard to the statement made by the facilitator, as the Government neither agreed for unconditional talks nor was it consulted." The meeting will be the first engagement the Norwegian head of mission will have after his return to the country from the Brussels Co-Chair meeting.

Solheim issued a statement that the Government and the LTTE has agreed to have unconditional talks, anticipating the talks to be held in Oslo somewhere around the first week of October.

"We have not agreed upon a date neither have we discussed a venue for any future talks," the Minister stressed adding that they need to have internal consultations with the Peace Secretariat before any decision is reached over this matter.

Minister Rambukwella in a statement issued early yesterday further said the announcement by Solheim took the Government by surprise. He expressed the view that by this statement they felt the Co-Chairs, the international community and the public have been misled.

Referring to Solheim's comments over the North East de-merger, Rambukwella emphasised that any statement by the facilitator with regard to an internal matter of Sri Lanka is unacceptable.

"The de-merger is a matter constitutionally vested with the public of the country through a referendum. Furthermore, the 1987 Indo Lanka peace accord deals with this issue in detail. The matter is also currently being challenged before the Supreme Court."