Gen. Fonseka falls on his sword - H. L. D. Mahindapala

Gen. (retd) Sarath Fonseka thought he was hurling a deadly missile when he accused Maj-Gen. Shavendra Silva of carrying out the orders of the Defence Secretary, in his absence, to eliminate the top LTTE leaders in Nanthi Kadal as they were coming out with white flags. But his missile hung in the air for a while and instead of hitting his opponents it swung violently and boomeranged on him, knocking him down and exposing him as a man not fit to wear the Sri Lankan Army uniform, it is sad to say.

It is not only the first biggest gaffe in his election campaign it is a crime committed against his own Army which he can never live down. He has kicked the Army which lifted him to the highest rank of a general. Yesterdays’ hero is acting like today’s Nero gone mad. The international repercussions reverberating round the world are a testimony to the irreparable damage he has done to the most professional Army of elite cadres that had won global respect for defeating the “invincible” Tamil Tiger terrorists.

Right now Gen. Fonseka is as confused as Velupillai Prabhakaran when he was on the run, retreating as fast he could, into Nanthi Kadal. On Sunday he accused one of his brilliant field commanders, Maj-Gen. Shavendra Silva, without whom he could never have won the war, and on Monday he summons a press conference to retract and claim full responsibility for all what happened in the battlefield. This is a useless exercise which does not serve either him or the Army which he commanded because, whether he admits it or not, under the laws of “command responsibility” he has to bear the responsibility for all the acts of his men, irrespective of whether he was aware of it or not. So he has shot himself in the foot by opening his mouth.

Also consider his other contradiction. On Sunday he uses the anti-Sri Lankan media in the private sector to fire his volley targeting the government, particularly his friend, Gotabaya Rajapakse, who made him the Army Commander over his other rivals, and on Monday he files charges in the Supreme Court against the state media targeting him.

>> Full Story