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Rediff.com  » News » Sri Lanka situation dangerous: Norway

Sri Lanka situation dangerous: Norway

Source: PTI
May 27, 2006 20:32 IST
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After his visit to Sri Lanka, Norway's top peace envoy Erik Solheim on Saturday said the situation in the island nation was "dangerous" and peace talks needed to be revived at the earliest to prevent escalation of violence into an all-out war.

Solheim, who held talks with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse for over two hours in Colombo on Friday, met National Security Adviser M K Narayanan and senior External Affairs Ministry officials in New Delhi to brief them on his latest effort to broker peace.

"The situation is dangerous" in Sri Lanka, the Norwegian International Development minister, who has been engaged in efforts to usher in peace in the country for several years, told reporters in New Delhi.

He emphasised the need for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam to resume dialogue with the government to prevent all-out war.

Apparently unable to persuade the two sides to return to the dialogue table, he said both parties were blaming each other instead of considering what they themselves were doing to help bring peace.

Solheim's deputy Jon Hanssen-Bauer is in Sri Lanka for the last three days, meeting government officials and LTTE representatives in a bid to prevent situation from sliding back to full-scale hostilities.

India is also worried about the situation in the neighbouring country.

The visits are an important part of preparations for the meeting of four donor countries -- US, EU, Norway and Japan -- on Sri Lanka in Tokyo on Tuesday next.

From Delhi, Solheim will travel for the meeting that will review the island nation's faltering peace process.

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