Opposition leader held as new poll announced

Published on Tuesday 9 February 2010 19:54

SRI Lanka's president dissolved parliament yesterday, clearing the way for new elections a day after authorities arrested the leader of the opposition.

• A campaign poster of Gen Fonseka, who lost the 26 January presidential election. Picture: AFP/Getty Images

President Mahinda Rajapaksa's decision follows his sweeping victory at the polls last month over his former army chief General Sarath Fonseka, who had defected to the opposition.

Analysts believe the arrest on Monday of Gen Fonseka was intended to prevent him from contesting the vote.

Gen Fonseka – who last year led government troops in their defeat of Tamil Tiger rebels – was dragged from his office by military police and arrested on charges that he plotted to overthrow the government while running the army. He has repeatedly denied similar accusations.

The former allies were considered heroes by Sri Lanka's Sinhalese majority for ending the quarter-century civil war, but their relationship deteriorated after hostilities ended.

The new parliamentary poll will choose the country's next 225 lawmakers, according to officials. No date has yet been set.

Gen Fonseka's distraught wife, Anoma, yesterday appealed to world leaders to press Colombo to free her husband, accusing the Sri Lankan government of treating him like an animal.

"I think his life is in danger. Why are they not telling me where he is? Why are they doing these things against him," she said.

"Last night the army persons came in and arrested my husband. A major general came with more than 150 other guys. They treated him like an animal.

"If they have come under army law, they have to treat him like a former army commander and the most senior officer in the army.

"They have to treat him as a human being. This is not the way to treat him.

"It is so unfair. Once he was a hero here, now they are treating him as an animal."

After announcing on Monday that Gen Fonseka would face a court martial on sedition charges, the government heaped more accusations on him.

A statement yesterday said the former army chief's reported call for anyone who committed war crimes during the conflict to be prosecuted showed he was "hell-bent on betraying the gallant armed forces of Sri Lanka".

Mrs Fonseka accused the government of creating stories about her husband.

"We don't want to do anything against the government," she said. "He wanted to stand in the elections as a candidate, that's all.

"I know his life is in danger because nobody can see him, nobody can talk to him, we don't know where he is now and I am so worried about him.

"I ask other leaders to do something for us because we don't have anyone to speak for us. We don't have a democracy here. No-one can open their mouths here."

She added: "Please tell this to the whole world, because these things cannot happen again and again.

"The people need a peaceful country. We have to stop this. The international community can help us to get rid of these very ugly things happening here, we have to get rid of that."

The government denied Gen Fonseka had been cut off from seeing his family and friends, and that he was being held at a secret location.

Military spokesman Major-General Prasad Samarasinghe said: "Family members are allowed to see him, and he has been allowed to obtain legal advice."

He added the former commander is not being held in a cell.

More than 7,000 civilians were killed in the final months of the fighting that crushed the rebels last spring.

Human rights groups have accused the military – which at the time was led by Gen Fonseka – of shelling hospitals and heavily populated civilian areas during the fighting, and accused the rebels of holding the local population as human shields.

Karu Jayasuriya, an opposition politician, said since the end of the election the government has arrested and harassed its political opponents.

Gen Fonseka has complained that the government was attempting to arrest him on trumped-up charges since the 26 January election.