Norway helped Sri Lanka rebels to establish links with Eritrea - report

Sept 28, Colombo: The Norwegian government helped Sri Lanka's rebel outfit LTTE to establish relations with Eritrea in a move to procure arms, ammunition, and equipment from China using Eritrean end-user certificates and other documents needed to legally buy weapons, a media report said Monday.

The Sri Lankan daily Island citing well informed sources reported that the ongoing investigations had revealed that Norway facilitated the meeting between Eritrean representatives and the LTTE.

"A tripartite understanding had been reached in Norway as far back as 2002-2003, when it facilitated negotiations purportedly aimed at ending Sri Lanka’s war," Island reported.

The Island report said that the LTTE had used Eritrean and also North Korean end-user-certificates to procure arms from China and smuggled them in several consignments.

Sri Lanka Navy destroyed eight fully loaded LTTE arms ships on the high seas between September 2006 and October 2007.

According to the sources the interrogation of LTTE' main arms dealer Kumaran Padmanathan alias 'KP' who was captured by Sri Lankan officials while hiding in a South Asian country had confirmed the Eritrean deal, sources said.

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