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| Sunday, 31 October 2004 |
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Oslo Declaration only a Statement says Norway by Rohan Mathes The Second Secretary of the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Colombo Tom Knappskog contacted by the Sunday Observer, said that the 'Oslo Declaration' was a statement issued by the Norwegian government in their capacity as the facilitator to the peace process after extensive discussion with the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE. "It was a press statement issued by the Norwegian government after six rounds of talks. However, the declaration does not explicitly state that the LTTE would give up all claims of an independent state. It was only a way to explore a federal structure within a united Sri Lanka", Knappskog said. He further said that at this conference in Oslo in December 2002, the then government was represented by former UNP ministers Prof. G.L. Peiris, Milinda Moragoda, Rauf Hakeem and former head of the Peace Secretariat Bernard Goonatilake. The LTTE was represented by Dr. Anton Balasingham, his wife Adel, S.P. Thamilselvam, Karuna Amman, Dr. Jay Maheswaran and V. Rudrakumar. The Norwegian Deputy Foreign Minister Vidar Helgessen, Special Peace Envoy Eric Solheim and former Norwegian Ambassador in Sri Lanka Jon Westbog participated as the Norwegian facilitators. Cabinet Spokesman and Media Minister Mangala Samaraweera at his regular Cabinet press briefing last Thursday also told newsmen that it was apparent that the LTTE had accepted the 'Oslo Declaration' with the Norwegian facilitators and the international community, and the recent statements claimed to be made by Balasingham, were only certain excerpts taken from a book, 'War or Peace', authored by LTTE theoretician Balasingham. In an exclusive interview with the Sunday Observer the Deputy Secretary General and Kandy District Parliamentarian Tissa Attanayake said that they do not know how the LTTE would interpret it, but it had been agreed upon by the LTTE that the framework for the peace talks to go ahead, would be based on the 'Oslo Declaration'. He however pointed out that misunderstandings and misrepresentations of this nature would be inevitable with the long impasse in the resumption of the peace talks between the government and the LTTE and urged the government to resume the peace process soonest sans seeking cheap popularity and political leverage. "The 'deadlock' situation would further aggravate the mistrust created between the two parties, and this would be disastrous", he opined. |
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