Sri Lanka needs to unveil a credible devolution package to end the ethnic conflict and now is the time to do it, India told Colombo's new Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama on his first foreign visit since taking office last month.
And Sri Lanka should remember that there could never be a military solution to the gory conflict that has turned messier since 2005-end after some years of relative calm, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee told his counterpart during free and frank discussions.
India's concerns follow the resurgence of violence and counter-violence involving the military and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in which the key victims have been Tamil civilians.
There is also worry here over rabid opposition in Sri Lanka to proposals to make the country embrace a federal system.
On his part, Bogollagama assured the Indian leadership - he also met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh - of his government's determination to go for a devolution package that will be based on a broad political consensus in Sri Lanka.
But in his press conference just before leaving India for Germany, Bogollagama avoided direct answers to questions on human rights violations in Sri Lanka and repeatedly spoke of 'crushing terrorism' even while saying that Colombo wanted the LTTE to become a stakeholder in the peace process.
He also denied that the large-scale defection of MPs from the main opposition United National Party (UNP) to the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) marked an end to the joint UNP-SLFP approach to the peace process announced in 2006.
'We are encouraging a negotiated settlement. Our government is committed to peace,' the minister said, while calling upon the Tigers to change their stripes and return to negotiations. 'We want the LTTE to become more responsible.'
At the same time, he warned that if the LTTE was 'a terrorist movement', then 'you cannot encourage it. It has to be eliminated... Our government is committed to eradicating terrorism... We have to have terrorism out of our way.'
The LTTE, he said, needed to 'come to a negotiated settlement with the government. We want to make it a stakeholder (in the peace process). We have looked at LTTE as a stakeholder. But if it adopts terrorism, we cannot tolerate.'
Speaking about the setbacks the LTTE has suffered in the island's east, he mocked at the Tigers.
“If they are strong, let us see how strong they are. How strong were they in the east? That situation has changed today.”
Bogollagama said Sri Lanka had the “blessings of India” and referred to New Delhi's repeated pledge to stand by the island's territorial integrity.
But he made no mention about India's frequent requests to avoid killings of civilians and to move away from a military solution to the conflict.
Asked about the growing concerns in Tamil Nadu about the civilian suffering in Sri Lanka, the minister said there was 'so much of distortion' about what really was going on.
Queried if Sri Lanka wanted a unitary government as opposed to a federal system of governance, he replied: 'It is not an issue'.
He said that any negotiated settlement would be based on an indigenous 'Sri Lanka model'.
And Sri Lanka should remember that there could never be a military solution to the gory conflict that has turned messier since 2005-end after some years of relative calm, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee told his counterpart during free and frank discussions.
India's concerns follow the resurgence of violence and counter-violence involving the military and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in which the key victims have been Tamil civilians.
There is also worry here over rabid opposition in Sri Lanka to proposals to make the country embrace a federal system.
On his part, Bogollagama assured the Indian leadership - he also met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh - of his government's determination to go for a devolution package that will be based on a broad political consensus in Sri Lanka.
But in his press conference just before leaving India for Germany, Bogollagama avoided direct answers to questions on human rights violations in Sri Lanka and repeatedly spoke of 'crushing terrorism' even while saying that Colombo wanted the LTTE to become a stakeholder in the peace process.
He also denied that the large-scale defection of MPs from the main opposition United National Party (UNP) to the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) marked an end to the joint UNP-SLFP approach to the peace process announced in 2006.
'We are encouraging a negotiated settlement. Our government is committed to peace,' the minister said, while calling upon the Tigers to change their stripes and return to negotiations. 'We want the LTTE to become more responsible.'
At the same time, he warned that if the LTTE was 'a terrorist movement', then 'you cannot encourage it. It has to be eliminated... Our government is committed to eradicating terrorism... We have to have terrorism out of our way.'
The LTTE, he said, needed to 'come to a negotiated settlement with the government. We want to make it a stakeholder (in the peace process). We have looked at LTTE as a stakeholder. But if it adopts terrorism, we cannot tolerate.'
Speaking about the setbacks the LTTE has suffered in the island's east, he mocked at the Tigers.
“If they are strong, let us see how strong they are. How strong were they in the east? That situation has changed today.”
Bogollagama said Sri Lanka had the “blessings of India” and referred to New Delhi's repeated pledge to stand by the island's territorial integrity.
But he made no mention about India's frequent requests to avoid killings of civilians and to move away from a military solution to the conflict.
Asked about the growing concerns in Tamil Nadu about the civilian suffering in Sri Lanka, the minister said there was 'so much of distortion' about what really was going on.
Queried if Sri Lanka wanted a unitary government as opposed to a federal system of governance, he replied: 'It is not an issue'.
He said that any negotiated settlement would be based on an indigenous 'Sri Lanka model'.
