Norwegian Tamils urge Co-Chairs to pressure Colombo

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 June 2007, 11:43 GMT]
Around 200 Norwegian Tamils of Norwegian Tamils Federation (NTF) gathered in front of Norway Foreign Ministry in Oslo Monday between 10:00 to 11:00 a.m., urging Norway to advice the representatives of the Co-chair countries, scheduled to meet in Oslo Tuesday, to pressure the Sri Lanka Government (GoSL) to stop human rights violations committed against the Tamils in Sri Lanka, Oslo sources said. Jon Hanssen Bauer, the Norwegian Special Envoy to Sri Lanka Peace Process, accompanied by Thomas Stangeland, Advisor, Norway Foreign Ministry, received the memorandum submitted by Ms. Sumathi Wijiyaraj, representative of Tamil Women Organization.



Mr. Jon Hansen Bower, receiving the memorandum thanked the Norwegian Tamils for the information given in the memorandum said that he will share the contents with other diplomats, according to a member of the NTF.

NTF is an umbrella organization of the Tamil Associations in Norway. The following associations participated in the gathering Monday.

Tamil Sangam in Norway
Norwegian Hindu cultural centre
Tamil Coordinating committee
Tamil Catholic Youth organisation
Norwegian Tamil health organisation
Tamil Resource and Counselling centre
Tamil Youth Organisation Norway
Tamils Women organisation

Norwegian Minister and Sri Lanka peace envoy, Mr. Eric Solheim is to host a meeting of the Sri Lanka Co-chairs, EU, Japan, the US and Norway, on 26 June to discuss matters related to Sri Lanka's peace process.

"Human rights and humanitarian affairs are definitely the issues of the day," one foreign diplomat said on Monday on condition of anonymity, Reuters said.

"It's fair to say that some of the Co-Chairs are still very much concerned about the situation in those fields today and will be focusing on that in the time to come," Reuters report added.







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