Pro-LTTE MDMK Leader Gopalswamyand UNP's Dr Jayalath Jayewardene held meetings with LTTE leaders in London

Fresh from their honeymoon with Minister Eric Solheim, Tamil Nadu's pro-LTTE maverick politician V. Gopalswamy, (VAIKO) leader of the MDMK party along with UNP's Dr Jayalath Jayewardene arrived in the UK on 15th April and held several meetings with LTTE leaders and their fund raising sympathizers based in London.

Foreign sources have informed Asian Tribune that both MDMK Leader Gopalswamy and UNP's Dr Jayalath Jayewardene were picked up from London Heathrow airport upon their arrival from Norway by Mr. Thilagaraja of the LTTE's (UK) branch otherwise known as the British Tamil Forum (BTF).

It is said that the parties attended several meeting organized by the British Tamil Forum (BTF) and met with senior LTTE leaders based in London. Both Gopalswamy and Dr Jayalath Jayewardene were looked after well otherwise by representatives of the LTTE for lobbying on behalf of the LTTE in Norway which was funded by the British Tamil Forum (BTF).

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Sri Lanka ready to talk with rebels but no contact with facilitators

The Sri Lankan government said Thursday that it will be ready for talks with the Tamil Tigers if they eschewed terrorism but has not made any formal contact with the Norwegian peace facilitators on resuming the process of stalled negotiations.

"Our doors are always open to start talks provided they give up terrorism," Keheliya Rambukwella, the government's defense spokesman and the minister of Foreign Employment told reporters.

Rambukwella was responding to media speculation that his ministerial colleague Rajitha Senaratne had talks with Norwegian Minister of International Development Erik Solheim in Oslo.

"His talks may have been private discussions but the government has not made any official contact (with the Norwegian government)," Rambukwella said.

Senaratne, the minister of Engineering Services recently met Solheim, who was previously the Norwegian special peace envoy on the process of negotiations between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

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http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-04/18/content_7999063.htm

VAIKO MEETS ERIC SOLHEIM AND BEGS OF HIM TO GIVE LIFE BACK TO THE ABROGATED CEASEFIRE AGREEMENT

India’s maverick politician Vaiko has begged of Norway’s most controversial peace negotiator and International Development Minister Eric Solheim who has been charged by non-tiger Tamil groups as a pro-LTTE man, to give life to a dead cease fire agreement that has been violated thousands of times by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) itself.

LTTE news sources revealed that the two controversial men met recently at Oslo’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Vaiko requested Solheim to help revive the Norway brokered abrogated Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) signed between Ranil Wickramasinghe government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

A close personal friend of the late Tamil Tiger “peace negotiator” Anton Balasingham, Soheim has been publicly attacked as a “White Tiger”, and enjoys very little credibility in Sri Lanka. He has been criticized by anti-LTTE Tamil groups and pro-Sinhala groups in the country as a non acceptable man.

Pro LTTE news sources said, Vaiko expressed his “gratitude on behalf of the Tamils in India to the Royal Norwegian Government for its engagement as facilitator to the CFA ..” when the two controversial politicians met each other in Oslo in Norway few days ago.

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http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items08/140408-1.html

Solheim to meet President today

Norway's International Development Minister Erik Solheim is due to call on President Mahinda Rajapaksa on the sidelines of the UN deliberations.

President Rajapaksa and Solheim, who was the special envoy for the Sri Lankan Peace Process prior to the appointment of Jon-Hanssen Bauer, are expected to discuss the current developments in Sri Lanka including the All Party Representative Committee Process, which is on the threshold of presenting a finalised set of proposals.

Solheim recently told an interviewer in Norway that Norway was willing to resume its role of facilitating the peace process. It was waiting patiently till the Government and the LTTE agree to resume talks, he said.

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http://www.dailynews.lk/2007/09/26/news17.asp