FOREIGN MINISTER JAN PETERSEN, ACCOMPANIED BY DEPUTY MINISTER VIDAR ELGESEN

Royal Norwegian Embassy

Press Release
11 May 2004

Foreign Minister Jan Petersen, accompanied by Deputy Minister Vidar Helgesen, ambassador Hans Brattskar and other officials met with President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga on 10 May and with leader of the LTTE, Velupillai Prabakharan, on 11 May to discuss possibilities of bringing the peace process forward.

“We had constructive and positive meetings with both parties and there is a clear commitment from the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE to resume direct negotiations”, said Foreign Minister Petersen.

Some issues need to be discussed further before negotiations can start. Norway will continue to consult with the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE in the coming weeks.

Both President Kumaratunga and LTTE leader Prabakharan reaffirmed their request to Norway to act as facilitator for the process.

The Road to Reconciliation, 2010

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Speech by Prof Rajiva Wijesinha at the BizPact Investment Forum, Public Library Jaffna, January 6^th 2010.
Stability and Confidence for Revitalization - entrepreneurship and education amongst the resettled
(January 21, 2011)

The process of resettlement is proceeding apace now, with well over 120,000 persons having gone back to locations in the Northern Province. Of these the more complex returns were to areas previously under the control of the LTTE in sections of Mannar and Vavuniya and in Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu.
Civil Military Liaison - The key to social progress
(January 21, 2011)

In the long hard haul that the process of resettlement has entailed, perhaps the most remarkable factor is the role played by the military. After the enormous effort involved in defeating the LTTE, there was no respite for the soldiers. Instead they have continued to work at a level of intensity that is sadly not recognized.
Overcoming constrictions and tyranny - The oppression of the LTTE in Mullaitivu
(January 21, 2011)

One reason why I suspect reconciliation will be easier in Sri Lanka than in many places that have suffered conflict is the level of suffering inflicted by the LTTE on the Tamil people. There was also an extraordinary hierarchical system, which gave great advantages to the privileged whilst the others had to serve them unquestioningly.
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Trincomalee has always struck me as a magical place, and I have often wondered whether we might not all have been much better off had President Jayewardene moved the capital there rather than ten miles down the road from Colombo to a place that had no merit, even in his eyes, except for its name. And, even if that idea might be fanciful, our failure over nearly half a decade to develop decent communications, to improve connections between the different areas of Sri Lanka, has struck me as a mark of monumental foolishness, which certainly contributed to the spread of resentment and then terror.
Individual Innovations and Initiative
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Trincomalee is associated in my mind with two individuals, whose life and work continue to provide guidelines for effort. The first was Denzil Kobbekaduwa, who was in charge of the area when I visited in 1988, to check on the schools furniture project. That was the time of the IPKF, and one could sense some tensions, even though in general officers on both sides behaved with perfect conviviality at army headquarters.
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After the Independence Day celebrations at the Rehabilitation Centres in Vavuniya, I visited a couple of areas that had been resettled. I had been particularly anxious to get to the Rice Bowl in Mannar, since that had been the initial target for rapid resettlement. In the days when the hostile claimed that we intended to keep the displaced permanently in Vavuniya, we were well aware that the President was pressing for rapid cultivation by the returnees.
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FOREIGN MINISTER JAN PETERSEN, ACCOMPANIED BY DEPUTY MINISTER VIDAR ELGESEN

Royal Norwegian Embassy

Press Release11 May 2004

The Road to Reconciliation, 2010

Disclaimer

Press Release
11 May 2004