Sri Lanka accuses Oslo envoy of funding rebels

Sri Lanka’s president has accused a top Norwegian envoy of covertly financing the island’s separatist Tamil Tigers during peace talks ahead of a military campaign that crushed the rebels in 2009. 

President Mahinda Rajapakse told a public rally on Saturday that he wanted Oslo to probe the role of Erik Solheim, a former Norwegian international development minister and a peace envoy to Sri Lanka.

Solheim failed to secure a peace deal despite arranging a truce which broke down in April 2006. Three years later, Sri Lankan forces extinguished the campaign for a separate homeland in a  military campaign.

Rajapakse in his address said Solheim gave money to the guerrillas even while peace moves were underway.  Solheim, a key figure who led Norwegian peace efforts between 1999 and 2006, recently announced his willingness to give evidence before any international tribunal investigating Sri Lanka’s war record.

Sri Lanka crushed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) by May 2009 in a massive military operation.

“Solheim told me that our forces will never be able to defeat the LTTE. He said (leader Velupillai) Prabhakaran is a very very clear man. A military genius,” Rajapakse said.

“Today Solheim is trying to jump up and give evidence against us. The Norwegian government should investigate his conduct. We have evidence of him giving money to the LTTE. We are ready to share that evidence.”

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