No room for terrorism under present leadership

Asela Kuruluwansa and Nihal Jayawardena

KANDY: When the entire world is denouncing terrorism, Sri Lanka is not prepared to kneel before terrorism and the Sri Lankan Government's stance is to provide a political solution to the North East issue without surrendering to terrorism, Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama said.

Minister Bogollagama received blessings of the Most Ven. Thibbatuwawe Sri Siddhartha Sumangala Maha Nayaka Thera, the chief prelate of the Malwatte Chapter on Monday.

Explaining the Government's stand, Bogollagama said it was his duty to brief the international community of the present Government's stance with regard to the North-East crisis. He met political leaders of India and Germany in the course of last week explaining the Government's hope to curb aid to terrorism in Sri Lanka.

He said that from the very beginning he had been emphasising the need for a consensus among all political parties with regard to the National Problem and that he is hopeful of gaining international support to the Government's transparency under the leadership of President Mahinda Rajapaksa to defeat LTTE terrorism and evolve a political solution with the consensus of all parties who are stakeholders in the issue.