Solheim feels ‘enormous shock’

Norwegian Minister Erik Solheim, who was the face of peace efforts in Sri Lanka, Saturday said the “horrible” massacre of 91 people was an attack on Norway’s “democratic values”.

“This is the most horrible attack on Norway in peace time,” the minister of environment and international development told IANS in a telephonic interview from London, while on his way to Oslo.

“We are a small and peaceful country. We have never experienced any such thing. This is an enormous shock,” he added.

“It is an attack on Norway’s democratic values,” he added.

Solheim’s comments came a day after the Scandinavian country was stunned by a powerful car bomb that killed seven people in Oslo and the later massacre of 85 mostly young people in a small island 40 km away.

Solheim, a member of the Socialist Left Party, which is in alliance with the Labour Party, said the government was engaged in efforts to take care of the injured and the families of the dead.

The minister told IANS the meeting on the island that was targeted was “a traditional summer camp where Labour Party leaders go and make speeches ... and the young discuss politics”. Solheim has travelled to India and Sri Lanka frequently in his former capacity as Norway’s special envoy to Sri Lanka.