Messy politics in Sri Lanka

By Ashok K Mehta

(February 17, New Dehi, Sri Lanka Guardian) Sri Lanka is in a royal mess just 10 months after a brilliant but brutal military campaign which vanquished the deadlyTigers fighting for a Tamil Eelam. Rather than consolidating peace, President Mahinda Rajapaksa, spurred by his brother Gothabaya Rajapaksa, the powerful Defence Secretary and former Colonel, has got embroiled in an ugly fight with a former Army Commander, Gen Sarath Fonseka, whom he had arrested on February 8 while he was on a visit to Russia.

Credited with winning the war, pictures of the three were plastered on every nook and corner of Sri Lanka. Gen Fonseka’s posters were pulled down as soon as he opted to contest the presidential election against his supreme commander, President Rajapaksa. Both became claimants for the halo of the war hero. For the establishment, Gen Fonseka’s challenge was seen as not the done thing. He was trounced by more than a million Sinhalese votes though he won hands down in the Tamil-Muslim majority areas.

Gen Fonseka was to file a petition in the Supreme Court challenging the ‘fraudulent election results’. This is the second reason he annoyed the President. The establishment threatened Gen Fonseka with charges of attempting to overthrow the Government, plotting to assassinate President Rajapaksa and his family and corruption in military procurement — all designed to buy his silence and exit from the country. Screws were also tightened on his son in law, Mr Danuna Tilakaratne, allegedly associated with arms companies.

Gen Fonseka refused to be cowed down and announced his intention to fight the Parliamentary election in April this year. As part of his counter-offensive, he told the BBC that he would be prepared to testify in an international inquiry on alleged human rights violations and war crimes during the last phase of the war. He also warned the Government that if it organised to kill him, he had a signed affidavit “containing all” which would be made public after his death. Once again, the war hero has become the magnet for Opposition parties determined to deprive President Rajapaksa the cakewalk of provincial polls in the parliamentary election.

Circumventing civilian courts, Gen Fonseka was put in military custody on charges of sedition. The Economist described the operation as “nabbed brutishly” even as Gen Fonseka was in a meeting with his political colleagues.

The plot to try him in a military court has not been thought through and even under Emergency regulations still in force a full 10 months after defeating the Tigers, is likely to confront legal hurdles. For the first time Sri Lanka has had a four-star General in him. With no officer senior to him in the armed forces, assembling a properly constituted military tribunal to try the seniormost military commander will be problematic. The court martial will be presided over by the Chief of Defence Staff and Air Chief, Air Marshal Roshan Gunatilleke, a three-star officer.

The summary of evidence is being recorded by Chief of Staff, Maj Gen Daya Ratnayake. But Gen Fonseka is unlikely to cooperate. His counsel, Mr Vijayadasa Rajapaksa, on February 10 filed a petition in the Supreme Court for violations of fundamental rights, which was admitted. On February 14 the Asian Human Rights Commission in Hong Kong criticised the denial of individual liberties of Gen Fonseka and noted that the military tribunal is a façade of legality. It added that the new Army Commander, Lt Gen Jagath Jayasuriya, has become a cat’s paw in the political game.

The involvement of the military in the election when the Army Commander appeared on TV on behalf of President Rajapaksa and the ill-thought and mismanaged arrest of Gen Fonseka have deeply divided the Army, weakened its morale and further politicised the organisation. The Times, London, observed that Gen Fonseka has been utterly humiliated since he lost the presidential election last month, even stripped of the security detail that protected him. It believes that he is widely admired among the rank and file for his leadership during the victorious military campaign. The unprecedented purge of the Army with all ‘Fonseka men’ removed, retired or jailed, will take its toll on the cohesion and spirit of the force.

A groundswell of support is building for Gen Fonseka and his wife Anoma who has become the new rallying point for the Opposition. Sri Lanka’s powerful Buddhist clergy has intervened, appealing to President Rajapaksa to release Gen Fonseka from custody. In unusually strong language, the religious leaders have, in a joint letter to the President, said it was “unacceptable to arrest a gallant officer who played a key role in defeating the LTTE, for petty political differences”. They have asked for the charges to be withdrawn and have questioned the propriety of the Government in appointing renegade LTTE commanders Karuna Amman as Government Minister and his colleague Pillayan as Chief Minister of Eastern Province, both of whom they say massacred civilians and military personnel.

A congenital foe of Gen Fonseka, Mr Gothabaya Rajapaksa is spewing venom against him. In an interview to the Singapore-based Straits Times, he has maintained that Government has enough evidence on charges against him, which were so serious that he could be sentenced to five years in jail. He claimed that Gen Fonseka planned to impose military rule and was linked to the January 2009 murder of newspaper editor Lasantha Wickremetunge.

The gains of the war victory lie in ruins. The Sinhalese are confused and divided with Gen Fonseka supporters taking to the streets and clashing with Government-backed counter-protestors. The Army is split though an open revolt is unlikely after the reshuffle in the command hierarchy. Having supported Gen Fonseka, the Tamils are wondering whether political reconciliation and power-sharing will ever be possible. The UN and the international community have asked for a fair and free trial for Gen Fonseka which is simply impossible through a military court.The judiciary has no appetite or incentive to confront the Government.

Sri Lanka’s new Rs 1,000 note carries a triumphant Rajapaksa on one face with five Sri Lankan soldiers hoisting the national flag in the iconic image of Iwo Jima on the other. This is unlikely to improve the international image of the country till internal stability is restored. Mr Gothabaya Rajapaksa, his brother’s chief mentor who is in town for the Defexpo, should obtain a presidential order to immediately release Gen Fonseka, mitigating the strategic blunder of his arrest.