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| Sunday, 24 November 2002 |
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Muslim concerns included in parley by S. Selvakumar The inclusion of Vanni Rehabilitation Minister Noordeen Mashoor in the Government delegation to the Oslo donor parley, which begins in the Norwegian capital tomorrow, will ensure that Muslim interests are adequately addressed, political sources told the Sunday Observer. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who leads the Government delegation to the historic international conference on the Sri Lankan peace process, left for London yesterday en-route to Oslo. The Premier, who leads a high-powered delegation, was accompanied by Ministers G. L. Peiris and N. Mashoor while ministers Milinda Moragoda and Rauf Hakeem will join him in London. They left New Delhi yesterday after briefing Indian leaders on the peace talks. Since the donor parley will concentrate more on the rehabilitation of North and East it had been decided the Vanni Rehabilitation Minister's presence will be essential. The concerns of North-East Muslims were a much talked about subject in the recent past which also led to the boycott of Parliament by nine Sri Lanka Muslim Congress parliamentarians. Prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who discussed the matter with the boycotting MPs, has assured them that the interests of the North-East Muslims will be looked into. The two LTTE delegates Dr. Anton Balasingham and J. Maheshwaran, will fly to Oslo today from London and Australia respectively. New Delhi, which earlier declined to participate in the donor parley at a political level will however, in view of its interest in the rehabilitation of the war ravaged North and East, will send a low level delegation headed by its High Commissioner in Norway, Gopal Krishna Gandhi. Mr. Gandhi was India's High Commissioner in Colombo until a couple of months ago. During his stay in Colombo he toured the North and East several times and inspected the damages caused due to the war. |
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