Norwegian official meets TULF

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 January 2000, 14:16 GMT]
Norway's secretary of state for foreign affairs, Leiv Lunde, held talks with the Secretary General of the Tamil United Liberation Front, Mr R. Sampanthan, at the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Colombo on Monday and Tuesday, political sources in the capital said.

Mr Sampathan told the Norwegian official that the ruling Peoples Alliance and the main opposition party, the UNP, should bring a political solution that is acceptable to the Tamil speaking people of the country, sources said.

Mr Sampanthan further said that the issue of devolution would certainly play an important role in a political solution. Only by permanently merging the northern and eastern provinces could the injustices meted out against the Tamil speaking people since the independence of the country be wiped out.

He added that under no circumstances would his party or the Tamil-speaking people accept a political solution under the existing unitary form of constitution.

He appealed to Leiv Lunde that a political solution to the ethnic problem should be reached with the participation of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and all efforts should be made to bring the LTTE to the negotiating table.

Mr Sampanthan also met Robert Burley, Head of the South East Asian Department of the Canadian Foreign Ministry, who is in Colombo to assist Norway's team in its effort to find a way to help the Sri Lankan government initiate talks with the LTTE, political sources said.

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