Buddhist monks burn effigy of Solheim

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 November 2000, 15:24 GMT]
Hundreds of Sinhala nationalists Thursday evening picketed out side the Royal Norwegian embassy in Colombo and burnt an effigy of Oslo's special envoy to Sri Lanka, Erik Solheim. The majority of the participants were Buddhist monks. Earlier around 4 the far-right Sihala Urumaya party organized a public meeting at Narahenpitiya in Colombo protesting against Norway's involvement in finding a solution to the island's conflict.

The Sihala Urumaya leader and parliamentarian Tilak Karunaratne led the meeting, after which about 700 supporters of the Sihala Urumaya marched to Norway's embassy situated at Ward Place, colombo.

The sihala urumaya party has severely condemned Norway's role in finding a political solution to the ethnic problem through talks between the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE. The Sihala Urumaya has accused the Norwegian government of working for the division of the country in connivance with the LTTE.

Recently special envoy Erik Solheim met LTTE leader Vellupillai Pirapaharan at Mallavi in Vanni region sparking protests. The Marxist JVP, which secured ten seats in Parliament in October's polls has vehemently condemned Norway's role and in a vitriolic letter to Oslo, accused it of being racist and colonialist.