Norwegian parliamentarians visit tsunami hit South

[TamilNet, Saturday, 22 January 2005, 12:43 GMT]
Three Norwegian parliamentarians Julie Christensen of Conservative Party, Morten Holkend of Process Party and Bjorn Jacobson of Socialist Left Party visited five schools destroyed by the tsunami in Tangalee, south of Sri Lanka Friday evening, sources from Colombo said. The damaged schools are being rebuilt by Plan International with Norwegian aid.

The Norwegian funded NGO will also construct 400 houses in Morakatiyara. The MPs also visited Mawala and Rakawa. The Morakatiyara village is around 78 acres and will be rebuilt with all infrastructure facilities.

Bjorn Jacobsen, himself a fisherman in Norway, said that they had debated the tragedy in the Norwegian parliament, and he had come to Sri Lanka to obtain first hand information on the destruction.

Jacobsen met fisherman in the area and discussed with them the problems they were facing as a result of the tsunami. The fisherman had said that in addition to the trauma due to loss of life and property, destruction of boats engines and nets has disabled them from earning a living.

The Norwegian team is expected to publish their findings and recommendation in a report when they get back home, the parliamentarians said.

They said with their visit they wanted to show their solidarity with Srilanka.