Today as Sri Lanka started its week long celebration for the commemoration of the war heroes and also to mark the completion of one year of its victory over LTTE, in an ironical twist of fate, the man who led the successful onslaught of the Sri Lankan Army against the Tiger rebels and later hailed as a national hero, was today hauled up in a civil court on fresh charges of creating communal disharmony through some of his statements.Sarath Fonseka is already facing two court martial charges against him. The State counsel making submissions in Court today said that General Fonseka had made defamatory statements regarding the government both locally and internationally and had also attempted to allegedly incite violence through some of his statements in the media.According to the police investigators, Fonseka had alleged in a newspaper interview in December last year ahead of the Presidential polls that the president's younger brother and Defence Secretary, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa had ordered the killing of some of the surrendering Tamil rebels. The former Army Chief Sarath Fonseka although later said that the newspaper had misquoted him. And in some of his later interviews also said that the Sri Lankan Army had never committed any act of human rights violations during the war.The Colombo Chief Magistrate placed General Fonseka in the custody of the Army after appeals by both parties and fixed the next date of hearing on the 26th of this month.
News On AIR | May 12, 2010 8:33 PM
Lankans start week long celebration for commemoration of war heroes, while Fonseka faces fresh charges