Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his former army chief Sarath Fonseka were responsible for alleged war crimes and killing of Tamil civilians during the last phase of the 30-year-old civil war, according to a secret United States cable made public by WikiLeaks.
Former Sri Lankan army chief Sarath Fonseka, who has been arrested on conspiracy charges, will face a court martial, the military has announced and said that over 25 people have already given evidence against the general.
Sri Lanka's Supreme Court on Friday admitted a petition challenging the arrest of defeated Presidential candidate General Sarath Fonseka and said it will hear the case on February 23. The court admitted a fundamental rights petition filed by Anoma Fonseka, wife of the former army chief, which seeks the right to freedom from torture, arbitrary arrest and detention. In her petition, Anoma had asked the court to rule her husband's arrest as illegal.
'Military police personnel who went to take Fonseka into custody on charges of military offences have neither beaten him nor harassed him on that occasion as reported in a section of the media,' the army said in a statement.
Official spokesman Lucien Rajakarunanayake said Rajapakse, who won re-election in presidential elections last month, signed a decree dissolving the national assembly with effect from midnight Tuesday.
General Sarath Fonseka, the defeated candidate in the recent Sri Lanka's presidential election and the country's former Army chief, has been arrested, BBC has reported.
Over 100 personnel from Sri Lanka's elite Special Task Force on Friday raided the office of former army chief and defeated opposition presidential candidate General Sarath Fonseka in Colombo."I don't know what they are looking for. They have also questioned the staff," said a close aide of Fonseka, who was trounced by incumbent Mahinda Rajapaksa in the January 26 presidential polls.
Defeated joint opposition candidate Gen Sarath Fonseka rejected the Sri Lankan government's allegations on Thursday that he had attempted to assassinate President Mahinda Rajapakasa, terming it as "trumped up charges" to arrest him.
Mahinda Rajapaksa's re-election as Sri Lankan president has come as a disappointment for the Tamil diaspora, which is still reeling from Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam rebels' defeat in the country's civil war last year. The influential community of Tamils living overseas now doesn't know about what role it should play in their homeland, the Christian Science Monitor reports.
The Sri Lankan army on Wednesday surrounded the Colombo hotel occupied by former army chief General Sarath Fonseka, who is the main opponent of President Mahinda Rajapakse in the presidential poll, counting for which began on Tuesday night.Heavily armed Lankan troops were deployed around the building following information that army deserters were among the 400 people present inside the lake-front luxury hotel in central Colombo.
'They wanted the army commander to arrest me and he told the air force commander to put air force people at their airport take over their airport they sent the army to all broadcasting stations and television stations... they sent all the people on leave; they had only some people and the army these were indications of a military coup,' Fonseka told television channel NewsX.
Incumbent Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has acquired an initial lead in postal vote counting in the country's sixth presidential election against main challenger and former army chief General (retired) Sarath Fonseka.According to the island-nation's Election Office, over 70 per cent of the 14 million-plus voters exercised their franchise in Tuesday's presidential election, which was held from 7 am to 4 pm.
Sri Lankan Government said it would challenge the candidature of Sarath Fonseka, the main opposition nominee who could not vote as he was not a registered voter.
Nearly 70 percent voters cast their franchise in Sri Lanka's first post-Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam presidential election on Tuesday, expected to be a close finish between incumbent Mahinda Rajapaksa and his main challenger General Sarath Fonseka.
Sri Lanka's presidential polls on January 26, between incumbent President Mahinda Rajapakse and the combined opposition candidate Sarath Fonseka, may be surprisingly too close to call, even as it has emerged that Rajapakse did the Congress party a favour during the Lok Sabha elections in Tamil Nadu last year by withdrawing the use of heavy weaponry against pro-Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam rebels in the last days of the war.
The stage is now set for what is expected to be the most closely contested Presidential polls in Sri Lanka, with the incumbent Mahinda Rajapaksa and his main challenger Sarath Fonseka are exuding full confidence of emerging victorious.
A pro-Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam parliamentarian has underlined his party's resolve for an 'autonomous rule' for Tamils in Sri Lanka, claiming that Tamil National Alliance's support for opposition presidential candidate Sarath Fonseka was extended only after getting him to agree to those conditions.
"India would have loved to get more involved in Sri Lanka positively -- helping us to fight terrorism. Now, remember, India suffered a lot in the sense, it lost its leader -- Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by the LTTE. That is something, which India can never forgive nor forget," says Razik Zarook, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse's Counsel.
In a major boost to the presidential campaign of former top Sri Lankan army general Sarath Fonseka, the dominant Tamil party, Tamil National Alliance on Wednesday announced support to him.
Questioning the purpose of opposition Presidential candidate Sarath Fonseka's recent India visit, an ally of Sri Lanka's ruling party has asked the former Army General to reveal the details of his tour and whether he reached an agreement with New Delhi.
Sri Lanka's former top General Sarath Fonseka, who quit following a spat with President Mahinda Rajapaksa, on Sunday announced that he would be the joint candidate of opposition parties in the presidential polls slated for January 26 next year.
Sri Lanka's former top general Sarath Fonseka, who resigned last week following a spat with President Mahinda Rajapaksa, has vowed to protect democratic freedom and human rights, amid reports that he may contest the presidential polls as an opposition candidate.
'There is nothing necessarily fatal if a soldier develops a passion for politics. An Indian commentator pointed out that, after all, there is the precedent of Dwight Eisenhower. But then, the nagging worry remains whether in the South Asian clime, like the sapling brought in from distant China, Fonseka, a US Green Card holder, may blossom and outgrow the botanical garden that Sri Lankan democracy used to be.'
The Sri Lankan government on Sunday formally accepted the resignation of General Sarath Fonseka as the chief of defence staff and asked him to retire with immediate effect, rejecting his plea to serve till December 1.
According to General Sarath Fonseka's retirement letter to President Mahinda Rajapaksa, it all boils down to the government's fears of a military coup and its mistrust of Sri Lanka's first and only serving four-star general.
A Sri Lankan military court on Friday stripped the country's war hero and former army chief Sarath Fonseka of his rank and medals after finding him guilty of dabbling in politics while in service. The General was convicted by a three-member military court which began deliberations five months ago. The court verdict has to be ratified by President Mahinda Rajapaksa in his capacity as the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, the Sri Lankan media reported.
Former Sri Lankan army general General Sarath Fonseka, who was arrested on February 8, has said that the charges filed against him were false.
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa appointed a three-member court martial panel to try detained ex-army chief Sarath Fonseka on treason charges and the proceedings against him would be launched on March 16.
India had refused to supply offensive weapons to the Sri Lankan military during its critical campaign against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, forcing Colombo to turn to China for purchases. "India had told us they were not in a position to sell or send offensive weapons or even equipment like radars and basic communication equipment to meet our requirements," Lankan army chief Sarath Fonseka has revealed. "So we had no other option," Fonseka said.
Prabhakaran's body was found near Nandikadal lagoon in the No Fire Zone.
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran was on Monday shot dead by Sri Lankan special forces as he tried to stage a dramatic breakout from the army encirclement, a military spokesman said.
With the beleaguered Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam confined to a small area of 4.5 sq kms, Sri Lankan army chief Sarath Fonseka has said the troops are consolidating their positions despite heavy attacks from remnant rebel cadres in the north, where at least 21 guerrillas were killed in intense clashes.
With tears in her eyes, Anoma Fonseka told reporters from her residence, on Tuesday, that she did not know where her husband had been taken on Monday night."He was not involved in politics while he was in the army. He only took to politics only after he retired from the army."
Mahinda Rajapaksa, a populist leader who trounced his former ally-turned-foe Sarath Fonseka in the Sri Lankan presidential elections, is proving to be a man with a Midas touch and has enjoyed good rapport with India in his first four years in office.
Expressing that he was "very fond" of India, Fonseka, who is being endorsed as the joint opposition candidate to challenge the incumbent Mahinda Rajapaksa, said he was looking forward to support from India during his future plans.
Sri Lankan Chief of Defence Staff Sarath Fonseka, the architect of the military offensive that led to the annihilation of the Liberation Tigers of the Tamil Eelam, quit his post on Thursday and is widely tipped to be the opposition candidate for the presidential elections next year.
Dubbing ex-army chief Sarath Fonseka as a 'fool', Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has ruled out an early pardon for the General, who is being court-martialed on charges of engaging in politics while in uniform and defence procurement irregularities."He is a fool. On November 16 (2009) he was sitting right here (the President's office in Colombo) and I asked him if he was interested in contesting (the presidential election) and he said, No, sir."
Sri Lanka has made it clear that India does not supply arms to the strife-torn island nation, saying that it understood New Delhi "political compulsions" in this regard.
The first presidential elections in Sri Lanka in the post-LTTE era evoked enthusiastic response on Tuesday from the voters who turned up in large numbers to decide the fate of incumbent Mahinda Rajapaksa and his ex-army chief Sarath Fonseka amid blasts in Tamil heartland of Jaffna. People started lining up even before the beginning of the polls, which opened across the country at 7:00 am. Voting will close at 4:00 pm.
As suspense grows about the whereabouts of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran after the capture of the last bastion of the outfit, the Sri Lankan army chief on Monday said he believed the guerrilla leader could be in an underground bunker or in the no-fire zone.It is widely believed that both Prabhakaran and his son Charles Anthony could be in the 20 sq km no-fire zone, where the rebel remnants are said to be holed up after they were pushed out.
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