Then President Mahinda Rajapaksa had sought a summit with LTTE leader Vellupilla Prabakaran at the time both sides were negotiating peace, former Norwegian peace envoy Erik Solheim told Daily Mirror.
In an interview with Daily Mirror Audio, Solheim said that Rajapaksa was also prepared to allow the LTTE to “dominate” the North.
“Mahinda told me he was completely open to having a summit with Prabakaran and that they would agree to the LTTE dominating the North as long as it was within one Sri Lanka,” Solheim said.
Solheim also said that the Norwegians had offered to evacuate civilians in the North using ships during the final stages of the war.
“We made an offer that every civilian and every LTTE cadre be registered, names be taken down and the civilians be moved out by ship to the South or abroad. Prabakaran rejected the offer,” Solheim said.
He also said that India was a firm supporter of the peace process throughout but in 2008 September the Indians started to change their opinion that it should be a military settlement, meaning that the Sri Lankan Government could win the war.
Courtesy: Colombo Gazette
INTERPOL Red Notice obtained to arrest 14 wanted criminals
The Police has obtained INTERPOL Red Notices to arrest 14 wanted criminals currently overseas, the Police media unit said.
The Police said that the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) obtained the INTERPOL Red Notices for 14 criminals wanted over drug trafficking, murder and other crimes.
Acting Police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera said the Red Notices were obtained over the past two months.
“We hope these criminals can be arrested soon and brought before court,” he said.
Gunasekera said the details of the 14 criminals will not be made public as investigations are still ongoing.
He said that information on several criminals have been obtained by the CID through the special hotline 1917 introduced by the Police.
The information received through the hotline is related to assets acquired by several criminals.
Courtesy: Colombo Gazette
