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Lanka Govt threatens to execute ex-army chief Fonseka | The Government of Sri Lanka has threatened to execute former chief of army staff, Sarath Fonseka, if he continues to suggest top officials may have ordered war crimes during the final hours of the civil war against Tamil rebels. Sri Lanka's Defence Secretary,
Gotabaya Rajapaksa, issued the threat. According to The Guardian ,Rajapaksa, who
worked closely with Fonseka on the aggressive military strategy that crushed the
Tigers and who is the brother of the president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, told the BBC's
Hardtalk programme that the general had proved himself to be a liar and a traitor.
Fonseka resigned from the military soon after the defeat of the Tigers. He is
an MP and was the main opposition candidate in January's presidential election
- winning 40 percent of the vote - but within days of his defeat he was arrested.
The former war hero is in detention facing a court martial on charges of corruption
and politicking while in uniform. Fonseka roused the fury of the ruling Rajapaksa
clan when he joined the opposition, a rift which deepened when he suggested there
was eyewitness evidence of the defence secretary ordering army officers to shoot
and kill surrendering Tamil Tiger leaders at the end of the war. That witness
is said to be a Sri Lankan embedded journalist who is in hiding overseas. In a
clandestine telephone interview, Fonseka confirmed that he had heard this account.
He said he would be prepared to testify to an independent investigation of alleged
abuses during the Tamil war. "I will not hide anything," he said. Gotabaya Rajapaksa
responded angrily to the prospect of Fonseka giving evidence. "He can't do that.
He was the commander! That's a treason. We will hang him if he does that. I'm
telling you! ... How can he betray the country? He is a liar, liar, liar," Rajapaksa
said. The defence secretary also ruled out any possibility of an independent,
third-party investigation of alleged war crimes committed by both the Sri Lankan
army and the Tamil Tigers in the final phase of the war. "We are an independent
country, we have the ability to investigate all these things," he said. |
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