Sri Lanka Field Marshall points Gotabhaya Rajapaksa as war crime villain US IS TALKING AFTER HIS TRIP TO US FINANCE BY
By Our Political Correspondent
Mar 10, 2016 19:09 PM GMT+0530 | 0 Comment(s)
ECONOMYNEXT - Sri Lanka's former army chief Sarath Fonseka Thursday fired a broadside against the former regime and singled out its defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse as the key man responsible for war crimes.
Field Marshall Fonseka said Rajapakse was about to be court martialled in 1991 for cowardice, but had fallen at the feet of then deputy defence minister Ranjan Wijeratne and secured a discharge.
"I met him in the US and he was working as a tinker for two years. He said it was very hard work. He had no vehicle. It was a friend of mine who gave him a cycle.
"But a few days later he lost the cycle. He claimed it was stolen. So my friend said: 'Why did you not use a chain or something like that to secure the bike.' His response was that he chained the cycle to a ladder and someone had stolen both the ladder and the cycle.
“Thereafter he worked as a computer operator for about 14 years. Can a man like that command an army of 200,000. If he can, then so can all of you," Fonseka said in parliament.
Field Marshall Fonseka said Rajapakse was about to be court martialled in 1991 for cowardice, but had fallen at the feet of then deputy defence minister Ranjan Wijeratne and secured a discharge.
"I met him in the US and he was working as a tinker for two years. He said it was very hard work. He had no vehicle. It was a friend of mine who gave him a cycle.
"But a few days later he lost the cycle. He claimed it was stolen. So my friend said: 'Why did you not use a chain or something like that to secure the bike.' His response was that he chained the cycle to a ladder and someone had stolen both the ladder and the cycle.
“Thereafter he worked as a computer operator for about 14 years. Can a man like that command an army of 200,000. If he can, then so can all of you," Fonseka said in parliament.
He said the military should face an internationally-monitored war crimes investigation in order to clear its name.
Much of the alleged atrocities, including the "white flag case" was when Fonseka was away in China in the final week of the battle in May 2009, he said.
He accused Rajapakse of giving illegal orders to junior officers. “What Gotabhaya did was like adding a bit of dung after collecting a pot of milk,” Fonseka said using his parliamentary privileges to accuse Rajapaksa of responsibility for atrocities.
Fonseka countered former president Mahinda Rajapaksa's allegation that investigations and arrests of his family members was a political vendetta.
He recalled how he was thrown in jail two weeks after he challenged Rajapaksa at the January 2010 elections. He said on the same night his wife had been taken to the CID at midnight and questioned at length while his daughters were grilled at the airport. His son in law was in hiding for five years.
He accused Basil Rajapaksa of giving a two million dollar bribe to the Tamil Tiger rebels in 2005 to secure a Tamil boycott of elections that resulted in his brother winning the elections, even though with a very narrow margin.
Fonseka maintained that Rajapaksa would have lost the 2005 election if not for the boycott orchestrated by the LTTE.
He said an investigation would be launched into the bribe and he vowed to expose those who paid bribes to the Tigers.
He also defended himself against allegations that he was behind the assassination of anti-establishment editor Lasantha Wickrematunga in January 2009. He suggested it was the work of the Rajapaksas, a charge they have already denied. (COLOMBO, March 10, 2016)
Much of the alleged atrocities, including the "white flag case" was when Fonseka was away in China in the final week of the battle in May 2009, he said.
He accused Rajapakse of giving illegal orders to junior officers. “What Gotabhaya did was like adding a bit of dung after collecting a pot of milk,” Fonseka said using his parliamentary privileges to accuse Rajapaksa of responsibility for atrocities.
Fonseka countered former president Mahinda Rajapaksa's allegation that investigations and arrests of his family members was a political vendetta.
He recalled how he was thrown in jail two weeks after he challenged Rajapaksa at the January 2010 elections. He said on the same night his wife had been taken to the CID at midnight and questioned at length while his daughters were grilled at the airport. His son in law was in hiding for five years.
He accused Basil Rajapaksa of giving a two million dollar bribe to the Tamil Tiger rebels in 2005 to secure a Tamil boycott of elections that resulted in his brother winning the elections, even though with a very narrow margin.
Fonseka maintained that Rajapaksa would have lost the 2005 election if not for the boycott orchestrated by the LTTE.
He said an investigation would be launched into the bribe and he vowed to expose those who paid bribes to the Tigers.
He also defended himself against allegations that he was behind the assassination of anti-establishment editor Lasantha Wickrematunga in January 2009. He suggested it was the work of the Rajapaksas, a charge they have already denied. (COLOMBO, March 10, 2016)
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