Norway to send special representative

MAJOR GENERAL (Rtd) Trond Furuhovde, former Head of Mission of Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission will visit Sri Lanka next month as a special representative of the Royal Norwegian Government, the Norwegian Foreign Ministry announced yesterday.

Furuhovde will consult with both parties on the security situation and the implementation of the Ceasefire Agreement, a news release issued by the Foreign Ministry said.

It said the Royal Norwegian Government is deeply concerned by the continuing violence in Sri Lanka over the past few months, which undermines the Ceasefire Agreement between the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

As facilitator, the Royal Norwegian Government has sought for the past three weeks to convene a meeting between the parties, at their request to discuss implementation of the Ceasefire Agreement.

"We regret to conclude that the parties have not reached agrement on the venue for such a meeting at this juncture," the release said. Norway will also host an extraordinary meeting of the Sri Lanka co-chair - USA, EU (European Commission and UK EU Presidency), Japan and Norway in New York on 19 September.

The aim of this meeting is to address the need to strengthen respect for the Ceasefire Agreement in the increasingly difficult security situation.