Srilanka

Solheim calls Karuna allegations 'complete lies'


By M.R. Narayan Swamy, New Delhi, Dec 2:

Norwegian minister Erik Solheim, the architect of Sri Lanka's barely alive 2002 truce, Saturday denied as "complete lies" allegations that he had been financed by the Tamil Tigers or that he had given them money.

"These are all lies. Everything is a lie," an indignant Solheim said in a telephonic interview from Burundi.

"It is a lie that I took any money from LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam). It is a lie that I gave a TV to Prabhakaran. It is a lie that I gave even a cent to (LTTE ideologue Anton) Balasingham.

"These are lies, these are complete lies," Solheim told IANS.

Solheim's comments were the first public reaction by the Norwegian minister of international development to allegations by Vinayagamurthy Muralitharan alias Karuna, the LTTE's former regional commander who broke away from the Tigers in 2004.

Karuna told Sri Lanka's main state-run newspaper Daily News that Solheim bought a house in Norway with money provided to him by the LTTE, that he gifted a six-foot television to LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran and that he also gave away 16 million kroners (2.5 million dollars) to Balasingham.

In a statement, the Norwegian foreign ministry said Karuna's statements contained "many incorrect and false claims about Norway and Solheim" and accused the newspaper of spreading lies.

Karuna, who was one of the most senior commanders of LTTE and a confidant of Prabhakaran before he walked out of the group with his supporters, later told the Asian Tribune website that he stood by what he had said to the Daily News.

"I think Erik Solheim might not have disclosed the details about the purchase of the 6' TV to the (Norwegian) foreign ministry as it happened especially in Bangkok," he said.

Solheim told IANS: "I am very surprised that Sri Lanka's main government newspaper has published these lies."

Karuna, who was also a member of LTTE delegations during peace talks with Colombo in foreign countries, has today turned bitterly against Prabhakaran and formed a rival Tamil group that is opposed to Sri Lanka's breakup.

Asked if Karuna was present when Solheim met the LTTE leader during his missions to Sri Lanka's north, the Norwegian minister replied: "He may have been ... once or twice. I hardly remember. I don't think he was there. He was mostly in Batticaloa. Even if he was, I can't remember."

Solheim scoffed at claims that he advised Prabhakaran how to run the LTTE.

"I have of course told Prabhakaran about the importance of human rights and what the international community expects (of LTTE)," he said.

Asked if the allegations would affect Norway's role as a peace facilitator in the unending ethnic conflict, Solheim replied: "Both Norway and myself are committed to the peace process as long as both parties (LTTE and Colombo) want us and we have the full support of the international community including India."

Solheim said "the same circles" had earlier accused Oslo of providing military training to the Tigers but Norway did not come out with immediate denials unlike now because "we thought no one would be that stupid to believe all that".

Asked if he or Norway had any time provided any aid to the LTTE in any form, Solheim answered: "It is well known that we have provided support to the LTTE Peace Secretariat and also the Sri Lankan government Peace Secretariat. But nothing has been done outside the knowledge of the Sri Lankan government."

Solheim has been a special envoy to Sri Lanka since Norway was asked by Colombo to play the role of a facilitator to help end a conflict that has claimed over 65,000 lives since 1983.

He oversaw the signing of a ceasefire agreement between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan government in February 2002.

After he became a minister in the Norwegian government, Solheim's colleague Jon Hanssen-Bauer has taken over the role of special envoy although Solheim oversees the developments in the now tattered peace process.

--- IANS

Source