By Sugeeswara Senadhira Courtesy Ceylon Today

Former Norwegian peace negotiator Erik Solheim, who defended Tiger terrorists and their vision of the so-called ‘Tamil cause’ for over three decades, finally acknowledges that he knew Tiger Leader Velupillai Prabakaran had ordered the killing of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Solheim, in a twitter message, said that during discussions he had with LTTE theoretician Anton Balasingham he admitted Prabakaran ordered the killing of Rajiv Gandhi.

New Delhi will never  forgive LTTE

Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by an LTTE suicide bomber on 21 May 1991, and thereafter New Delhi completely stopped dealings with the terrorist outfit. A former Foreign Secretary said that New Delhi will never forgive the LTTE for directly interfering with the Indian democratic system by killing a leader of the main political party that was about to come to power once again and every future Government, whether Congress or BJP or anyother party would not deviate from that policy. 

That is even evident today from the Modi Government’s refusal to pardon the Rajiv killers even after they served more than 30 years of prison terms.

Neither New Delhi nor Colombo will forgive Solheim for covering up the LTTE crimes for 25 years since the Norwegian Peace Negotiator commenced peace negotiations in 1996.

While condemning the Sri Lankan Government’s armed forces on alleged human rights violations at every forum as well as during discussions in different capitals such as, Oslo, New Delhi, London, Washington and Tokyo, Solheim failed to acknowledge the ruthless killings and terrorist attacks of the LTTE. 

Wanted in India for  prosecution

Norway began its peace process on a wrong footing. Soleim travelled almost every month from Oslo to London to first discuss with Anton Balasingham and then flew to Colombo to seek views of the Government and then took an Air Force helicopter ride to Vanni to continue the dialogue with the LTTE Political Leader Thamil Chelvam, Nadesan and others.

Initially, Solheim kept India out and he refused to brief New Delhi. Infuriated the Indian Government placed a newspaper advertisement in all prominent newspapers in Sri Lanka stating that LTTE leader Velupillai Prabakaran and their Intelligence Chief Pottu Amman were absconding criminals and were wanted in India for prosecution in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. 

Change of travel plans

Solheim understood the message clearly and he changed his travelling itinerary to Oslo-London-New Delhi- Colombo-Vanni-Colombo-New Delhi-Oslo. 

Although he briefed Colombo and New Delhi he displayed his partially towards LTTE by trying to find reasons for terrorist actions. Furthermore, he never disclosed the hard fact such as Prabakaran’s direct involvement of Rajiv Gandhi assassination. Balasingham told me Prabakaran admitted to the killing of Rajiv Gandhi in their private discussions. Bala was not in the slightest doubt as to who ordered the attack. Bala never lied to me. I see no reason why he would have lied on this,” Solheim tweeted last week. The fact he revealed now would have been useful to prosecute Rajiv assassins at that time.

After the collapse of the peace process too, Solheim played a different tune. When Indian journalist Padma Rao Sunderji asked him if he was acceptable to New Delhi he said there was a lot of skepticism in Delhi. What will these pink, Christian Europeans with no real knowledge of South Asia make of problems on this continent?  But at the end, we were not only acceptable to India, we had the closest relationship. After every visit to Sri Lanka, I went to New Delhi to inform the political leadership and the Indian intelligence about what I’ve achieved or not achieved.”

One-way ticket — to  Europe

He added that when he met Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh in New Delhi he asked if Solheim was a patient man. I said, no, no, I’m not patient, how can we be, when people are dying in Sri Lanka every month? Mothers are crying, children are dying, how can we be patient?” To that, Singh said: do you know the way to Indira Gandhi International Airport?  Go. Buy a ticket — making sure it’s a one-way ticket — to Europe. Because if you’re not patient, you’ll only run into problems here. If you take a 10-15 year perspective on the Sri Lankan conflict, then you may do something good. 

Of course, he (Singh) was right, I was wrong. We learned our lessons and became patient. But still, the fundamental issues in Sri Lanka — the status of Tamils, and the influence of Tamils within the State of Sri Lanka are not resolved,” Solheim told Padma Rao Sunderji.

Norwegians turned  a blind eye

The journalist pointed out that there were many allegations against the Norwegian mediators. One is that even though the LTTE, within years of the struggle, were acknowledged to be an armed separatist group, the Norwegians turned a blind eye to that fact. And that the Norwegians, to date, maintained connections with many overseas ex-LTTE groups like the Transnational government of Tamil Eelam” that sprung up even after the war ended, Padma pointed out. 

Solheim ignored the question and said, What we could do is to see what the government wants, what the Tigers want and — bring that together. That was our role.”

In his twitter message last week, Solheimalso accused Prabakaran of failing to compromise by not accepting an offer to evacuate Tamil civilians during the final stages of the war. I accuse Prabakaran of failing to compromise and not accepting the offer to evacuate Tamil civilians.” Then he put the blame on the Government, It was the Sri Lanka Army who indiscriminately shelled and bombed people to death. I wish we, as mediators, had the powers to influence the parties to make wiser decisions.” 

LTTE would never agree to a federal solution

Neither we, nor India, US, China, EU or anyone else. The aim of the peace process was a federal solution to Sri Lanka. The vast majority of Tamils would have been happy with that,” he said. He failed to give any reason for the purpose of his peace process when he knew that LTTE would never agree to a federal solution.

Solheim also revealed that Balasingham had predicted the LTTE could lose the East, may be even the North, because of a failed military strategy. If the LTTE and Solheim were convinced that the LTTE would lose and there was no hope for any solution, why did he continue with the peace process? Is it for personal perks and international fame for a short period? Erik Solheim owes an explanation to the people of Sri Lanka and India as well as to Norwegian tax payers.