Lanka deadlock: Norwegians prefer Indian route to peace

The two Norwegian mediators in Sri Lanka’s on-off peace process with the LTTE, Deputy Foreign Minister Vidar Helgessen and special envoy Erik Solheim are arriving in India over the next few days.

The two mediators are here to confer with the Indian leadership about prospects for peace in Sri Lanka — they will discuss alternatives and ask for New Delhi’s advice on the way ahead. Even though India has been, for the most part, a silent partner in Colombo’s negotiations with the LTTE, which have been overseen by Norway over the last couple of years, New Delhi has played an active role behind the scenes. The Norwegian mediators’ visit is significant, as it comes in the wake of the latest constitutional crisis in Colombo, and their visits last week to the Sri Lankan capital and to Killinochhi, where they met LTTE supremo Prabhakaran among others.

In fact, it was the LTTE that was willing to return to the negotiating table, the Norwegians said, but there was no one there on the other side. In New Delhi, meanwhile, there seems to be a growing sense that the Norwegians, by focusing so much on the ‘‘human rights of the LTTE’’, may have, in fact, helped push matters into their current corner.