Solheim to go before international tribunal on Sri Lanka

Tuesday, 10 June 2014

Former Norwegian Minister and peace envoy to Sri Lanka, Erik Solheim has said he is willing to be a witness at any recognized international tribunal on alleged war crimes committed by Sri Lanka during the war.

“I will be a witness before any recognized international tribunal if I am asked to do so,” Solheim has told Ceylon Today.

He has added that he has been asked by the UN, USA and others on different occasions to be a witness in an inquiry on alleged human rights violations.

Pointing out that during the war, tens of thousands of Tamil civilians were killed and hospitals were shelled, the former peace envoy has said such atrocities cannot be buried without conducting investigations into them.

Solheim, noting that peace in Sri Lanka was won by the war at a tremendous cost, has said he still believes peace could have been achieved without the bloodshed.

When asked why Norway’s peace process failed in Sri Lanka, the former peace envoy said it was wrong to isolate Prabhakaran, the leader of the Tamil terrorist group Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, as the reason behind the failure.

He has said only Norway met with the LTTE leaders for negotiations and it would have been much better if a number of international leaders had met Prabhakaran and had impressed upon him the need to compromise and to settle for federalism.

“During the last four months of the war, we called upon Prabhakaran to accept an 'organized' end to the war, which would have saved the lives of tens of thousands of civilians and thousands of LTTE cadres. Kumaran Pathmanathan (KP) can bear witness to this. It is so sad he did not accept the facts,” Solheim has said.