OSLO, NORWAY, June 5, 2006: More than 2,500 Norwegian Tamils assembled at Juni Plassen Victoria Terrasse recently in front of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs where their representatives met Mr. Hilde Haraldstad, Deputy Director, Peace and Reconciliation Section, and Foreign Office Executive Officer Mr. Sondre Bjotveit and handed them an appeal on behalf of the Tamils in Norway. Protest rallies were also held in Denmark and Sweden. The protesters, headed by Balasingam Yogarajah, Coordinator of the Federation of Tamil organizations and a member of Oslo Municipal Council, then marched on to the portals of the Norwegian Parliament where they handed a memorandum to Mr. Olav Akselsen, Head of the Foreign Committee. The memorandum appealed to Norway to speak out and to be more pro-active to save the peace process and avert a break-out of war. The Swedish Tamil representatives in their appeal said that a just peace in Sri Lanka is possible only if the international community recognizes the Tamils’ right to self-determination, and urged Sweden to recognize the democratic and sovereign rights of Tamil people. A Bloomberg News report late last month, here, stated that Norwegian peace envoys invited Sri Lanka’s government and Tamil Tiger rebels to hold talks in June to discuss violations of a 2002 cease-fire accord and prevent the South Asian island nation’s return to civil war.
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