Full Report on General Sarath Fonseka's restoration of Civic Rights & The Rest

Jan 21,(Colombo Page) Colombo: Former Army Commander of Sri Lanka Sarath Fonseka has been fully pardoned by the Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena today.

The former Army general who led the decisive war against the LTTE to end the terrorism in Sri Lanka was stripped off of his ranks and rights by the previous government.

Fonseka has been acquitted of all charges filed against him under the previous Government and has been granted complete amnesty by President Maithripala Sirisena, President's Media Division said.

President's Media Division said President Sirisena pardoned the former General by the powers vested in him under Article 34 of the Constitution.

Accordingly, Fonseka's rank will be restored and will be entitled to all military and social privileges without any legal barrier. He will be awarded back his medals and honors. Accordingly, General Sarath Fonseka The former Army Commander, who played an integral role in ending the three-decade long war against the terrorist group Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), retired from the Army to contest as a common opposition presidential candidate against the former President Mahinda Rajapaksa at the 2010 presidential election.

Fonseka lost the presidential race to the incumbent President Mahinda Rajapaksa with a wide margin of 18 percent. Following his loss, he was arrested on 8 February 2010 by the military allegedly for conspiring to overthrow the government by staging a coup with the assistance of Army officers loyal to him.

The former General faced two court martial tribunals on several charges and he was stripped off the ranks and the pension by a verdict of the first court martial which found him guilty of participating in political activities while in active service.

Following his defeat in the Presidential Election he was elected to Parliament from Democratic National Alliance, the party he led, in the General Election in April 2010. He lost his parliamentary seat after he was sentenced to serve a three year prison sentence by the Military Court.

After serving more than 2 years in prison, Fonseka was released on 21 May 2012.

SF to parliament?

From Sri Lanka Mirror

MP Jayantha Ketagoda, who recently crossed over to the UPFA, has agreed to resign from his parliamentarian portfolio in order to enable Democratic Party (DP) leader Sarath Fonseka to take his place in parliament, reports say.

Although Fonseka was elected to parliament from the Colomb district after contesting the last General Election under the Democratic National Front (DNA), he lost his MP portfolio after the Rajapaksa government stripped him of his civic rights.

Accordingly Jayantha Ketagoda, who obtained the next most number of preferential votes from the DNA after Fonseka, was appointed to parliament instead.

Acquitted & released

Meanwhile, it is reported that President Maithripala Sirisena has directed the Attorney General to take all measures needed to acquit & release Fonseka as well as to remove all political barriers imposed against him by the Rajapaksas.

The new government has also agreed to appoint the former Army commander as a Presidential Advisor on National security as well as to restore his military titles and medals, reports add.

සරත් ෆොන්සේකා ජනාධිපති උපදේශක

From Divaina
හිටපු හමුදාපති සරත් ෆොන්සේකා මහතා ජාතික ආරක්‍ෂාවට අදාළව ජනාධිපති උපදේශක ලෙස පත් කිරීමට රජය පියවර ගෙන ඇත.

ඔහුට අහිමි වී ගිය පදක්‌කම් හා හමුදා නිල නාමයන් ද යළි ස්‌ථාපිත කිරීමට රජය එකඟ වී ඇත.

මේ අනුව තමා ජාතික ආරක්‍ෂාවට අදාළ කටයුතු සඳහා ජනාධිපති මෛත්‍රීපාල සිsරිසේන මහතාට සහාය දෙන බව සරත් ෆොන්සේකා මහතා පවසා ඇත.

SF to be restored with army ranks, pension, civic rights

by Zacki Jabbar

Former Army Commander Sarath Fonseka is to be restored with his titles, medals, pension and civic rights which he was deprived of in 2010, after being convicted of alleged irregularities in military procurements and sentenced to three years in prison.

President Maithripala Sirisena during the recently concluded Presidential election campaign pledged that if elected, he would rectify the injustice caused to Fonseka by the Rajapaksa government which erased his name as Army Commander from the records, deprived him of his Four Star General rank, pension and civic rights. Among the other titles the Ex-army chief was stripped of were Rana Wickrama Padakkama, Rana Sura Padakkama, Vishista Seva Vibhushanaya, Uttama Seva Padakkama and Desha Putra Sammanaya.

Asked if the gazette notification being prepared would also have the effect of restoring Fonseka’s civic rights, the sources replied that it was not clear if it would be done separately as it flowed from a court conviction.

Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapaksa when contacted said that the President had the power to pardon including the restoration of peoples civic rights.

A few months after the defeat of the LTTE on May 19, 2009 Fonseka was elevated to the rank of Chief of Defence Staff. He retired shortly thereafter complaining that it was a move to sideline him and unsuccessfully challenged Mahinda Rajapaksa at the January 2010 Presidential Poll. Fonseka was arrested on February 8, 2010 and court martialed. He was found guilty of corrupt military supply deals and sentenced to three years in prison. After serving more than two years of the term, Fonseka was released on May 21, 2012 due to a sustained campaign by local and foreign civil rights groups and political parties.

Won’t let ISI use Lanka for anti-India operations: Sarath Fonseka

From Times of India - South Asia Desk

CHENNAI: ​Tipped to be the new defence minister in the Sirisena cabinet, former Sri Lankan army chief Sarath Fonseka said the new regime will never allow the Pakistani spy agency ISI to use Lankan soil to mount attacks on southern India. In an exclusive and wide ranging interview to TOI, Fonseka said he was prepared to face any international inquiry into his role as the army chief during the operations against the LTTE. Rajapaksa was largely ignorant of ground operations conducted by the army against the LTTE and in his election manifesto in 2005 had even proposed peace talks with Prabhakaran.

Q: How do you see the election results?

Fonseka: Rajapaksa was politicizing the military, judiciary, police, government administration and everything. There was never good governance at all. His family members were largely involved in the administration. Corruption was very high. All cross sections of people in the country thought he should be sent away from the government. So people have thrown him out from power.

Q: What will be your role in the new government? What kind of responsibility do you expect?

Fonseka: I will play a major in the security aspect. I like to work with the President on the national security. Though I am not a parliamentarian right now I am expecting a political post. (Indicating defense ministry)

Q: Rajapaksa was looking as an unbeatable leader. When did the opposition started believing he couldn't be defeated?

Fonseka: When I came out the prison in 2012, I made a public statement that we will chase him before 2015. The main opposition parties decided to join together and fight against Rajapaksa. Senior leaders like Chandrika Kumaratuge, Ranil Wikramasinge and I expressed desire for a stronger opposition and Maithripala Sirisena left Rajapaksa. We strongly believed the united opposition can defeat him. The support of Tamil National Alliance and Sri Lanka Muslim Congress was crucial. The minorities played a very important role.

Q: There have been reports that the international community helped the formation of united opposition against Rajapaksa. Is that so?

Fonseka: Nobody from the international community gave me directions or encouraged me. We did it on our own. If international community really wanted to end Rajapaksa's government then they would have done it even before since this man antagonized many countries. He was only friendly with China and ignored the rest of the world. His relationships with other countries were not correct. His foreign policy was not correct. There were no human rights in the country during his regime.

Q: You are talking about human rights. But many international organizations including UN want internal probe on war crimes in Sri Lanka. Will the new government cooperate for the probe?

Fonseka: We have not signed any agreement with any country for any probe. If there are any allegations of human rights violations or war crimes then the rest of the international community will be interested to probe. We can't accommodate everyone. We can't permit everyone. But our military court would conduct inquiries. Whenever there was mass killing our military did inquire into it. The government can take action against the military.

Q: But there were thousands of innocent people killed during the war. When forums like the UN demanded a probe why were you hesitating to face it if there were no violations?

Fonseka: If there is a legitimate inquiry then as a member of the country we have to face it. As far as the military is concerned I have to face it. If there is a legitimate inquiry then I am ready to face it since I was doing the ground operations. Rajapaksa was trying to get political mileage by saying I will not allow war heroes to face inquiry and all that. He made many nonsensical statements like this. But he knew only little about the war and what happened in the war field.

Q: Rajapaksa has been projected that he has decimated LTTE and ended the decades long war...

Fonseka: He gave only orders as a President which is what the previous Presidents did. But operations were not successful. He doesn't know tactical and strategical operations. Every President wanted to finish the war. But in the 2005 election manifesto, Rajapaksa said he will have peace talks with Prabhakaran. When the army was chasing the LTTE, he didn't even know what was happening on the ground in 2007. He did not even allocate money for ammunitions. I was recruiting additional 85,000 army men. When I became commander I recruited 4,000 men in a month. Earlier only 3,000 people joined the army for a year. I planned the entire operation and I was communicating with all levels of army persons.

Q: Still a section of leaders in India have been claiming that Prabhakaran is alive. What is the fact?

Fonseka: Everybody saw the dead body. We found the bodies of Prabhakaran and his elder son Charles Antony. We never found bodies of his wife Mathivathani and daughter. I saw one of the interviews of Kumaran Padmanapan who had said both of them were front liners in the war. We believe they were in the war field. Prabhakaran's wife helped the militants with logistics support and his daughter was a female cadre of LTTE. No body would have escaped from the war field.

Q: What happened to his younger son Balachandran? He was a child. Why did the army killed him?

Fonseka: We don't know. We never captured him alive. I have seen the pictures of his body only through media. If the army had killed him, I would have been informed.

Q: According to you, the army killed only Prabhakaran and his elder son?

Fonseka: We only found their bodies after the war was over.

Q: what will happen to LTTE leaders Kumaran Padmanapan and Karuna who later joined with Rajapaksa?

Fonseka: They have to face the legal action. They were hardcore terrorists.

Q: What happened to the seized assets of LTTE?

Fonseka: Kumaran Padmanapan (KP) has the large part of the money and gold. That is why he has been spared by the Rajapaksa government. Tons and tons of gold have been taken by Rajapaksa family through KP. There will be an inquiry in this regard.

Q: There has been a demand in the Tamils dominant North province for demilitarization? What is your view?

Fonseka: We have to maintain the army there. Not only for internal security, but also in the view of security threat externally.

Q: Do you think there may be a resurgence of the militant group in Sri Lanka?

Fonseka: As long as we are in power, we would not allow it to happen.

Q: Then what is the need for keeping larger number of military in Northern Province?

Fonseka: The military has far been positioned in the country. If people in North say you can't keep the military in their area then people in South will repeat the same.

Q: What will be the foreign policy of the new government?

Fonseka: We will follow a non-aligned policy. We will not be friendly with only one country. We will maintain good relations with all.

Q: In the recent past, Pakistan's ISI carried out anti- India operations from Colombo through their diplomats...

Fonseka: If it is happening we can't allow any such kind of terror activities in a country which is a sovereign nation. We will not permit any kind of terror activities. 

Two senior military officers return Served as aides to Gen. Fonseka

By Anton Fernando

Maj. Gen. Mahesh Senanayake and Brigadier Duminda Keppetiwalana, aides to former army commander, General Sarath Fonseka, returned to Sri Lanka yesterday.

The two senior army officers fled the country following developments after the 2010 presidential election when Fonseka lost to Mahinda Rajapaksa at the poll.

They were welcomed by military officials on arrival at the BIA early yesterday.

Name any price, govt. ready to buy Fonseka!

The government has ‘sought a price’ from Democratic Party leader, former Army commander Sarath Fonseka, to get him to join its ranks, a very reliable source reports to ‘Lanka News Web.’

In response to common opposition candidate Maithripala Sirisena’s public declaration that he would restore, within 24 hours of his election, the positions and privileges lost by the ex-Army chief, the president has expressed agreement to return Fonseka everything the government has taken from him.

Agreement is for Fonseka to be restored civic rights, his general ranking and pension, ownership of the plot of land at Kirimandala Mawatha in Nawala, release of the frozen money in several banks and withdrawal of fabricated court cases against him.

However, it has been stressed that minister or secretary position of the defence ministry will not be given to him.

As the first step, the government has given a green light by granting bail to Dhanuna Tilakaratne, Fonseka’s son-in-law. Fonseka is presently under tremendous pressure from his wife and two daughters to join the government, say sources close to the family.

He is today (25) having a lengthy discussion with former president Chandrika Kumaratunga regarding this matter, and in the event of failure of the talks, Fonseka is likely to dissolve his party and join the government within the next few days, the sources say.

Furthermore, unconfirmed sources say Fonseka’s representatives who are holding talks with the government have requested an advance payment.

“We Witnessed What True Cowardliness Is” – SF Slams At Tissa And Ketagoda

Former Army Commander and leader of the Democratic Party Sarath Fonseka has dubbed Tissa Attanayake’s crossover to the government as nothing short of a disgrace to all politicians of the opposition.

Fonseka’s deputy Jayantha Ketagoda too shifted his allegiance yesterday and extended his support to President Mahinda Rajapaksa, along with the former General Secretary of the United National Party.

“Attanayake chose the wrong time to give in to the “bribes” of the ruling party. This is a time when the people of the country expect their leaders to act in an exemplary manner,” Fonseka said speaking to reporters at the Opposition’s Leader’s Office yesterday.  

“Today we witnessed what true cowardliness is, both the former UNP Generala Secretary and a member of my party abandoned their policies for the perks and privileges offered by the ruling party”, Fonseka said yesterday, adding that it was high time to change the present political trend.

“The present government was built on bribes and they control the entire country through bribes and extortion. It is truly pathetic to see members of the opposition give in to the corrupt agendas of the government”, he added. However, the Democratic Party leader made no reference to the people who acted as go-betweens of the two crossovers.

It is widely speculated that a Parliamentarian of the opposition, who was a close associate of Fonseka at one point, acted as the ‘go-between’ of the process.

Sarath Fonseka said that as a politician he is ashamed of the people who switched their allegiance for money. However, the politicians who crossed over flatly denied the charges that they accepted money and other privileges from the government.

Common Opposition Candidate Maithripala Sirisena at Solis Hall - Video

Sarath Fonseka giving a Speech at Solis Hall - Video

General Sarth Fonseka to become the Defense minister in a newly established government in future.

Leader of the Democratic Party (DP) former Army commander Sarath Fonseka will be given the responsibility in the ministry of defense as well as another ministry in the new government which will be formed after defeating the present regime, leaders of the opposition parties have decided.

The decision has been made at a meeting held between the opposition party senor members on 29^th evening.
The current ministerial portfolio on defense is held by President Mahinda Rajapaksa himself.

At present the regime has stripped Mr. Fonseka of his military rank of General, all the honors,the army pension and even his civic rights.

In a recently held meeting, both the UNP leader Ranil Wickramasinghe and MP Karu Jayasuriya said that the next government formed by them will take immediate action to give Mr. Fonseka back everything he was robbed of by the current regime, within 72 hours.

However, after the election of the new president, a general election would have to be held with regards to a new constitution. Yesterday’s discussion has been based upon arriving in to a common agreement regarding the content of this proposed new government. There the parties have also agreed upon the distribution of national list MP posts as well. 

Forming relatively smaller cabinet in contrast of the current mega cabinet has further been suggested in this discussion. Conversion of the executive presidency in to a nominal title and vesting the executive powers upon the constitutional council has also been discussed at this meeting.

Wise note of Caution - "SF strikes note of caution"

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