(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
Ola Lie, the CEO of the company responsible for the development of Norsk Hydro's controversial bauxite project in Utkal in India, now considers himself grossly misquoted by Tarjei Leer-Salvesen in Norwatch. Leer-Salvesen writes in Norwatch's latest newsletter that Lie admitted to him who knew who staged the police action in Maikanach on September 16 last year – known as the "Maikanach massacre".
off-the-record
Norway's ambassador to India, Truls Hanevold, is also said to have told Leer-Salvesen that he knew who had staged the action, but that he would invoke diplomatic immunity if he was called to testify in the court hearings that begin on 2 May. Hanevold's statements to Leer-Salvesen are not referenced in Norwatch's newsletter, but Ny Tid last week passed on Tarjei Leer-Salvesen's minutes from the conversation with the ambassador.
Now both Lie and Hanevold strongly deny that they have spoken in this direction. However, Ny Tid has spoken to another journalist who has been to India and talked to Ola Lie.
- Yes, he told off the record that he knew who had given the order, says journalist Karen Frivik. Frivik was in India as a television journalist with colleague Hanne Victoria Schaubert, and hopes to present the material on TV. But the sensational statements from Ola Lie were thus given "off the record" – that is, without being attached to the videotape.
denies
- I can not say that, because I would like to continue my work here in India.
There is therefore reason to assume that it was very unwelcome when the Indian newspaper Dharitri last week reproduced the information from Norwatch's newsletter, the statements from Lie included. According to a press release from Norsk Hydro, Lie has now written a letter to the newspaper, in which he says, among other things, that "as Utkal director, I have never said that we have any special knowledge of the identity of people or bodies behind the shooting episode in Maikanch."
convened
According to the newspaper article in Dharitri, Lie will now be summoned as a witness to the hearings in Orissa's Supreme Court on 2 May. The deadline for summoning witnesses expired last Friday. In the letter to Dharitri, Lie writes, according to the press release, that “it is therefore completely wrong to claim, as Norwatch does, that we will not actively participate in the court hearing that will be initiated shortly. UAIL [“Call Alumina International Ltd”, ed. on the contrary, will actively support any initiative to shed light on the case in court. "
Tarjei Leer-Salvesen, for his part, believes that the case has become too difficult for Lie when it was mentioned in an Indian newspaper. – He hardly cared about what was in Norwatch's newsletter. But then it is quoted in an Indian newspaper, and thus he is summoned as a witness, says Leer-Salvesen.
denies
Ambassador Truls Hanevold also denies that he said anything in the direction that he knew who ordered the police action in Maikanch. Hanevold tells Ny Tid that he "does not know what Leer-Salvesen is talking about".
- Definitely not.
- Do you have information that could in any way shed light on the question of who is responsible for the massacre?
- No. It would only be about speculation.
- Have you been asked to attend the hearings in Orissa?
- No, I did not know anything about this until the case appeared now.
- If you had been called as a witness, would you then invoke diplomatic immunity to avoid appearing?
- It is a completely theoretical problem that I can not answer. I have never been in this area, and have not met anyone who has anything to do with this case, other than Leer-Salvesen, says Truls Hanevold.
