Speaking at the ‘Belgian-Norwegian Seminar on Peace Mediation and Reconciliation’ on May 21 in Brussels, Belgium, Norwegian Foreign Minister Jan Petersen said that he had spent the previous week in Sri Lanka in an attempt to breathe new life into the stalled peace process. He commented that, while no breakthrough had taken place, there had been progress.

State Secretary Vidar Helgesen, in a more detailed presentation on Sri Lanka, said the peace process had advanced well. There had been six rounds of negotiations. The Oslo round of December 2002 had identified the basis for a solution, namely a federal structure to allow for internal autonomy. Norway has learnt, through earlier involvements, of the absolute necessity in any peace process of helping people to realize the peace dividend. Mr Helgesen added that with regard to Sri Lanka, this was possibly one of the less positive aspects, due to a perception of a lack of progress in the North and the East that had led to the present crisis, whereby the LTTE has suspended its participation in the negotiations and was refusing to attend the Tokyo conference. The State Secretary added that Norway was working hard to address the issues.

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