SF allegations: Govt. to go legal

While dismissing the allegations made by Presidential Candidate General Sarath Fonseka the government yesterday vowed that legal opinion will be sought to take action against what it called the ‘malicious attempt to tarnish the image of Sri Lanka and the armed forces’.

Disaster Management and Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe addressing a hurriedly convened press briefing at the Media Center for National Security said yesterday that the statement made to a weekend newspaper by General Sarath Fonseka was very damaging locally and internationally.

“This is a great betrayal against his former boss, colleagues and soldiers of the armed forces who fought the war side by side against a common enemy. We have no doubt that the baseless allegations are for personnel gains,” Minister Smarasinghe stressed.

Quoting a statement made by General Fonseka on July 10 at Ambalangoda, Minister Smarasinghe said the two statements were highly contradictory.

He alleged that on July 10 General Fonseka has said at a felicitation ceremony: “I managed the war like a true soldier. I do not make decisions from AC rooms. I was under pressure to stop the war even during the final phase. I got messages not to shoot those who are carrying white flags. A war is fought by soldiers. They do so by putting their livea on the line. Therefore, their decisions about war should be taken by the soldiers in the battle front. Not nth people in the AC rooms in Colombo. Our soldiers have seen in life the kind of destruction carried out by those people before they decides to come carrying a white flag. Therefore, they carried out their duties. We destroyed any one connected with the LTTE. That is how we won the war”.

Minister Samarasinghe said the modus operandi to make this kind of ‘extremely harmful’ and ‘baseless’ allegations was to give oxygen to the US State Department attempt to inquire the so called Human Rights violations during the humanitarian operation.

“Do not forget that PresidentMahinda Rajapaksa has appointed a 6 member committee to look into the charges. But these people are not satisfied and they want to internationalize the issue,” Minister Smarasinghe added.

“The Sri Lanka armed forces have prosecuted war in a highly professional manner, in line with the international law. . Otherwise they could not have taken LTTE leaders like George Master or Daya Master in to custody. Even the parents of Prabhakaran are in the care of the government. If what General Fonseka claimed is to be true, how could they survive?” Minister Smarasinghe asked.

“Sri Lanka has emerged a free nation with a bright future before it. The government has taken all measure possible to make Sri Lanka the hub of naval, air, trade and financial hub of the region. There are many in the local and international for a with an agenda hell bent on destabilizing it”, Minister Samarasinghe emphasized.

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