CLASSIFIED | POLITICS | TERRORISM | OPINION | VIEWS

NORWEGIAN AID GROUP’S EXPLANATION ABOUT STOLEN VEHICLES BY LTTE RAISES MORE QUESTIONS THAN ANSWERING ANY SAY ANALYSTS

By Walter Jayawardhana

The explanation of the notorious Norwegian aid group NPA regarding its heavy equipment and vehicles being used by the Tamil Tigers has given rise to some more questions about their credibility than answers , analysts in Colombo said.

The aid group, Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) with a controversial past of receiving allegations of aiding an African insurgency with arms and ammunition has denied it has also given heavy equipment and vehicles to the liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) engaged in war and terrorism with the government of Sri Lanka.

According to the Norwegian national news agency NTB, the heavy earth moving equipment and other vehicles now allegedly used by the terrorist group for terrorist and military activities were not given to the LTTE but were stolen by the terrorist group.

Norwegian People's Aid secretary general Petter Eide rejected the allegations, saying 'the trucks were stolen,' Norwegian news agency NTB said in Oslo.

Norwegian television documentary and a Sudanese government record show the Norwegian government used NPA to air drop arms and ammunition to a Sudanese insurgency together with humanitarian aid in the 1990’s.

The controversial use of Norwegian People’s Aid property only came to light only after the Ministry of Defense website revealed the fact and never before that either head quarters of the notorious aid group in Oslo or their counterpart in the LTTE stronghold of Kilinochchi had reported the stealing of the property to the government of Sri Lanka letters of the aid group show..
The explanation that the vehicles and earth moving equipment had been removed by force by the LTTE was admitted by the Norwegian group after the Sri lanka Army, had come to know the fact and not before that.

The Defense website of Sri Lanka said, “The NPA states, without giving an exact date on which the LTTE had "stolen" nine of its heavy vehicles including; one excavator earth moving vehicle, one tractor with water bowser trailer, one Toyota Land Cruiser Jeep, one Tata Pickup vehicle, one Mitsubishi Canter twin-cab vehicle, two Ashok Leyland Trucks, one Tata 407 mini truck, and one Tata water tanker. Further, it sates that it has no complicity with the terror group over this act of "theft".

The letter signed by Mr. William Atkins, the Resident Representative of NPA - Sri Lanka, has requested the Defence Secretary's assistance "in correcting the inaccuracies and false innuendo reported in the said article on the Ministry of Defence website".

Analysts in Colombo said the NPA letter to the Secretary of Defense has raised more questions than giving answers:

(1) If the vehicles were stolen and not given why did the aid group report about the big theft to the ministry of Defense, Public Security Law and Order of Sri Lanka or any other law enforcement agency?

(2) Why did not the NPA indicate any date for the alleged theft?

(3) Why did not the NPA consider it a very serious matter when such a large number of heavy vehicles got into the hands of a terrorist group and report the matter immediately rather than waiting for the Ministry of Defense to publish the facts?

(4) On July 24 when the matter was reported to the Ministry of Nation Building and Rehabilitation why did not the NPA mention anything about the involvement of the LTTE in the matter?

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