by Walter Jayawardhana in Los Angeles
Norway’s interest in Sri Lanka was not wholly attributable to unselfish concern for the welfare of the troubled Indian Ocean island nation and the Norwegians were also interested in profit making out of it, reported the London based weekly, The Economist.

In a Colombo datelined story The Economist said, Norway’s interest in peaceful Sri Lanka is not wholly altruistic, and went on to report the far away Northern European country’s growing business interests in the strife torn island troubled by a festering separatist war.

The Economist said, Norsk Hydro, Norwegian oil and Gas Company has a 67% stake in Ceylon Oxygen whose products include industrial gases and medical equipment.

Ceylon Oxygen, which used to be a government run company in the past has now been privatized. The Economist said, under the Norwegians it is one of the fastest growing companies in Sri Lanka.

The weekly, writing under the title, ‘The Wounded Tigers’, also revealed that Norway hoped to win a contract in Sri Lanka to build and run a fuel storage plant for aircraft. "It may be just coincidence that the Norwegian peace delegation arrived on the day that a seminar to promote Norwegian business and investment began in Colombo," it further said.

The Economist said the Tamil Tigers had been badly wounded diplomatically owing to the global war on terrorism and they needed to strike a deal with the Sri Lankan government that would restore some respectability to their organization.

"The Tigers," said The Economist, "have been badly wounded not in a military sense, but diplomatically. Over the past year or two many countries have been losing sympathy with their aim of establishing a separate state in the North and the East of the island.

In February last year Britain, the former colonial power shut down the Tigers office in London. Since the attacks on the United States on September 11th, the Americans and their allies have included the Tigers in the worldwide ragbag of groups regarded as terrorists. In most capitals, the Tigersā sources of money are being tracked down and their bank accounts frozen. The Tigers are desperate to protect the rest of their money, which is mainly collected from sympathizers abroad. They need to strike a deal with the Sri Lankan government that will restore some respectability to their organization."

The Economist said at first any talks are unlikely to be attended by the Tigers leader Velupillai Prabhakaran. It pointed out that his front man Anton Balasingham, who, despite Britain’s apparently firm line on terrorism continued to operate in London.

The weekly said, "This week Mr. Balasingham proposed that India should play host to any talks."

But the British news magazine said, "The present (Indian) Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee would probably be happy to see Mr. Prabhakaran put on trial. Mr. Balasingham of course knows this, and his Madras proposal may be a feeler to see whether India, once the Tigers’ patron, remains its enemy. Any peace deal giving substantial advantages to the Tigers would have to be approved by India, the regional superpower."

The Economist pointed out that Tigers had not dropped their demand for a separate state for the Tamils, although these days Mr. Prabhakaran prefers to talk of a Tamil homelandā rather than separatism. "But whatever it is called, they must be aware that no Sri Lankan government would allow a slab of territory to operate entirely out of its control," the magazine said.

"The best that Tigers can hope for in the near future is that the government will lift the present ban on anyone belonging to or supporting the organization. Even this concession may be difficult for Buddhists, three quarters of the population, to stomach. The government does not want peace talks to start until local government elections are out of the way," the magazine said.