On his India visit, within 72 hours of being appointed the foreign minister of Sri Lanka, Rohitha Bogollagama today updated Prime Minister Manmohan Singh about the peace process in the island nation, besides calling for greater economic cooperation between the two countries.Later, addressing the media, Bogollagama said the Lankan Government has to “weaken the LTTE” if the outfit is indulging in terrorist activities. He added that they would rather like the LTTE be a “stake holder” in solving the ethnic issue. During his 30-minute meeting with the Prime Minister, the Lankan foreign minister discussed the consensus in Sri Lanka over a “legitimate constitutional process” to arrive at a “negotiated settlement” to the ethnic issue.India has been suggesting a negotiated settlement of the ethnic question that has been plaguing the island nation. He said there should be a “Sri Lankan model” for solving the ethnic issue. When asked about whether the unitary nature of the constitution will be changed to address the issue, the visiting foreign minister said a “solution will take care of the aspirations of all the people of Sri Lanka”.Bogollagama said, with the current political set-up, there was greater consensus over solving the issue. “There are even three Cabinet ministers and five minister of states from the Tamil community in the Cabinet,” he said, but firmly added that the LTTE should do away with “terrorist activities”.“They (LTTE) should know what they are representing? Terrorism or peace?” he said and added, “Terrorists need to be hit hard. There is no such thing as good terrorist.”The foreign minister also said there was a lot of “misinformation” about the civilian collateral damage that the LTTE speaks about.In the evening, Bogollagama met External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee.
