Disregarding the high standards and ethics that are expected to be followed by a peace facilitator, the former peace facilitator during the war between the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE, Erik Solheim has once again entered the picture to play his former role of supporting the LTTE and their separatist cause, this time in Geneva, External Affairs Deputy Minister Neomal Perera told the Daily News yesterday.
Norwegian Minister Erik Solheim has brought himself to the attention of the international community as a peace facilitator who is now going to submit evidence against a country (Sri Lanka) for which he himself facilitated peace talks.
“Setting new standards in the field of conflict resolution as a peace broker, a very highly ethical and moral Erik Solheim has said that he will go before the war crimes inquiry on Sri Lanka conducted by the United Nations Human Rights Council,” Perera said.
“We have to see if this is going to be just the real individual Erik Solheim or whether the government of Norway is also backing his agenda, because Norway has been a friendly state to Sri Lanka,” the Deputy Minister said.
Solheim’s connections with the LTTE terrorists are known to all Sri Lankans. Solheim had initiated action to fund the LTTE terrorists during his time as a peace broker in Sri Lanka.
“We have enough evidence that he took steps to finance the LTTE terrorists on so many occasions in so many ways. There are members of the LTTE who will submit evidence to this effect against Solheim,” he said.
Asked if he could give names of those who will submit evidence on the subject, Perera said: “I do not want to give their names. But there are many members of the LTTE who had stood testimony about this in the past against Solheim. They will testify against him, that he funded the LTTE terror group”.
“This was one of the reasons that the present government ended Norway’s peace facilitator role,” the deputy minister pointed out.
“The government defeated the LTTE which Erik Solheim had refered to as an invincible military outfit to the government of Sri Lanka,” he said.
“Solheim’s readiness to give evidence against a country in which he had played the role of a peace facilitator brings into question the issue of his credibility,” he added.
From: Daily News. http://dailynews.lk/?q=local/solheim-it-again-says-deputy-minister
