Colombo, June 27: A grenade blast rocked the office of the Norwegian-funded NGO in Colombo in the early today, hours after the arrival of Norway's special envoy to Sri Lanka Eric Solhiem to hold fresh round of peace talks with President Chandrika Kumaratunga and other leaders.Police sources said that a hand grenade was hurled at theoffice of Redbarner, a Norwegian funded NGO in central Colombo around 0130 hours today. The grenade blast damaged the window panes of the office but no one was hurt in the explosion.It has been officially confirmed today that Solheim has arrived yesterday for a three-day visit to hold comprehensive round of negotiations with Chandrika, opposition United National Party leader Ranil Wickramasinghe and other leaders.Solheim is scheduled to visit New Delhi on May 29 to apprise the Indian leaders about his talks with the Sri Lankan officials and the LTTE.Solheim yesterday met Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs Prof G L Peiris in order to apprise himself with the progress made by Chandrika and Ranil during their numerous round of talks in Colombo since last month to finalise a new draft constitution, which included proposals to grant autonomy to Tamil dominated north and eastern province.He is scheduled to meet Chandrika today.Solheim, who is here on an unscheduled visit, is also expected to meet Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar and various other officials.It is however not clear whether Solheim carried any fresh proposals from the LTTE to declare a cease-fire to start a fresh round of peace talks. Both the Norwegian and Sri Lankan officials are tightlipped on the issue.Chandrika and Ranil have reached an agreement on some of the issues like formation of an interim council for five years to administer north and eastern province, powers to be granted to the provinces to administer land and unit of devolution for the Tamil provinces.The draft constitution is scheduled to be finalised by June 30 and will be placed before parliament for ratification.Today's grenade attack is the second attack of its kind on the Norwegian institution since last month. A grenade was hurled at the Norwegian Embassy compound on May 24, a day after Norwegian Deputy Foreign Minister Reymond Johenson and Solheim's visit here during which they made a serious bid to work out a ceasefire to stop the fighting between the Sri Lankan Government and the LTTE in Jaffna to be followed by peace talks.Police later said the May 24 grenade attack was the result of a land dispute between the neighbour of the Norwegian embassy and his relatives.But right-wing sections of the Sinhalese community has strong resentment against the involvement of Norway ever since it was officially designated as the facilitator by the Sri Lankan Government and the LTTE for the peace talks between the two warring sides, early this year.
