Grenade attack on Save the Children office

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 June 2000, 06:35 GMT]
A grenade was thrown at a Norwegian aid agency office, Save the Children (Redd Barna), in Colombo in the early hours of Tuesday morning according to police sources.

Though there were no casualties, a car parked at the office was damaged in the blast, the police said.

The attack on the Redd Barna office came as Norwegian special envoy Erik Solheim, arrived in Colombo Tuesday to hold talks with government and opposition politicians, as part of Norway's peace effort.

Norway has come under strong criticism from Sinhala nationalist organizations opposed to the Scandinavian country's efforts to bring about peace talks between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers.

On May 24, a grenade was thrown at the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Colombo. A group calling itself National Front Against Tigers (NFAT) claimed responsibility for the attack on the Norwegian mission. That attack too came shortly after the arrival of a Norwegian delegation, comprising its Deputy Foreign Minister Raymond Johansen who was accompanied by Erik Solheim.