NEW DELHI: Terrorists need to be hit and there cannot be "good" terrorists, the new Sri Lankan Foreign Minister, Rohitha Bogollagama, said here on Wednesday after he met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee.

Speaking at the Foreign Correspondents' Club, Mr. Bogollagama said his Government would make the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) a stakeholder in the peace process.

Stating repeatedly that a terrorist movement needed to be eliminated, the Minister, however, stressed that Colombo was committed to ushering in peace and development.

Asked about the collapse of the "southern consensus" with the defections from the Opposition United National Party to the Rajapaksa Government, he said the memorandum of understanding between the UNP and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) did not cover "movement" of members of Parliament from one party to another.

According to Mr. Bogollagama, the UNP would not like to be isolated despite the recent defections and the numbers game in Sri Lankan politics would not affect the process of rapprochement between the two parties on the ethnic question.

Pointing out that 15 parties were participants in the Government, the Minister said, "We want these parties to become stakeholders — that's why we have offered Cabinet berths to incoming MPs."

Unitary Constitution

To a question whether the Government was willing to give up the unitary Constitution, Mr. Bogollagama said: "I did not say we are going to give up the unitary basis of the Constitution."

He maintained that "not a single civilian" had been killed during the recent military actions in Vaharai in eastern Sri Lanka. According to him, information on civilian deaths was "distorted."

Special relationship

Stressing that Sri Lanka had a special relationship with India, he said patrolling of the national waters by the Indian and Sri Lankan Navies had been extended, but added there was no enhanced military cooperation.

Mr. Bogollagama said bilateral trade was expected to touch the $3 billion mark soon. A timeframe for implementing the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement figured during his talks with Dr. Singh, he said.

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