Norway slams Colombo media report

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 March 2005, 12:00 GMT]
Norway Tuesday slammed a Colombo media report that it has conveyed a warning to the Government of Sri Lanka and international donors that it is considering a suspension of its role as facilitator to the Peace Process. The Norwegian embassy in Colombo categorically denied the report. Daily Mirror published from Colombo in a lead story Tuesday quoting "informed sources" said: "the LTTE may withdraw from the ceasefire agreement and Norway may suspend its role as facilitator if the government fails to set up a joint mechanism with the LTTE before the end of April to handle tsunami rebuilding in the northeast".

"They said both the LTTE and Norway had already informally conveyed this warning to the government and several international donors including the European Union have urged the government to act fast on this matter", the paper added quoting the informed sources.

The following is the full text of the Norwegian embassy press release:

"The Norwegian embassy categorically denies that Norway has conveyed a warning to the Government of Sri Lanka and international donors that it is considering a suspension of its role as facilitator to the Peace Process. Local media refers to anonymous 'sources'. We can only assume that these so-called sources neither wish the post-tsunami rebuilding efforts or the Peace Process well.

"We expect that serious media outlets in the future will check these kinds of outrageous claims with the embassy prior to publication".