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Tiger radio: CBK to deal directly with Norway's PM
By The Sunday Times Diplomatic Correspondent
President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga will write this week to Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Bondevik to apprise him of her serious concerns over the role played by their Embassy in Colombo in helping Tiger guerrillas acquire sophisticated radio broadcasting equipment.

She is to tell Mr. Bondevik that their Colombo Embassy's role in acting as a consignee for the LTTE cargo has caused serious doubts on Norway's impartiality as a peace facilitator. She is also to express her concerns over the security implications both for Sri Lanka and her neighbours, particularly India.

People's Alliance sources told The Sunday Times that President Kumaratunga's message to Premier Bondevik is essentially to keep him apprised of the developments and not to seek any immediate action or intervention. "President Kumaratunga will tell the Norwegian Premier that she will correspond with him again after fuller details of the controversial broadcasting equipment transaction are available," the sources said.

According to these sources, President Kumaratunga is also to tell Premier Bondevik that she will be writing to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, calling for a full report on the matter. "It is thereafter that she will resort to further correspondence," the sources said.

As President and head of the government, it is President Kumaratunga who accepts the diplomatic credentials of all envoys posted to Sri Lanka by foreign countries. By that same measure, she is empowered to withdraw the credentials of any envoy, if there is strong evidence to provide that such a person acted against Sri Lanka's national interest and endangered the well-being of the country.

After a three month long silence involving the broadcast equipment, the Government reacted last Friday by issuing an official statement. This statement from the Government spokesman and the response of The Sunday Times Diplomatic Correspondent appears on Vot: Question...

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