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By Our political editor(February 09, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The retired army commander, General Sarath Fonseka, was arrested yesterday in the presence of several leading politicians in Sri Lanka by the Military Police and is being held in their custody. It is reported that, he will be charged with some military offenses. The entire process of the arrest of the most popular opposition leader in Sri Lanka at the moment by the Military Police is to prevent him being brought before the courts and to deprive him of the possibility of availing himself of the legal remedies that are available within the normal law of Sri Lanka.
By conducting the arrest through the Military Police and keeping him in military custody the government is able to prevent the intervention of lawyers and the courts to intervene on his behalf. In this manner it is also possible to have secret interrogations where he could be subjected to any form of harassment and humiliation. His wife has also told media that he may not be given the medicine he need to take every six hours, due to injuries he suffered as a result of an attack by a suicide bomber.
Sarath Fonseka has repeatedly predicted that the government was planning to arrest and assassinate him. He has associated any kind of arrest as part of a plot to assassinate him and he has repeatedly told the media and the public that he was aware of plans to arrest him with a view to assassinate him.
Sarath Fonseka is at the moment the most popular opposition political figure in Sri Lanka. He contested the last election as the opposition candidate on behalf of several political parties and became the symbol of the common opposition. In fact, he turned what would have been an otherwise uneventful election for the position of executive president into a major political event.
The government, basing itself on the military victory against the LTTE launched a presidential election in the hope that there would be hardly any opposition against the incumbent president. The exploitation of the unpopularity of the major opposition political party, the United National Party which supported a peace agreement with the LTTE was to become a major political strategy for the government. The prediction at that stage was that if the presidency was to be contested by the United National Party then the incumbent president was likely to win a landslide victory.
However, the opposition sought the leadership of Sarath Fonseka who was also a popular leader among the Sinhalese because he was the commander of the army in the war against the LTTE. Besides this he was an outspoken critic of the government and challenged it on the grounds of corruption and inefficiency in the management of the country.
Within days of his announcement that he was to be the opposition candidate the opposition political agenda took on a new life and the government was faced with a truly epic challenge in the elections. The massive turn outs in the meetings supporting Sarath Fonseka indicated the general unpopularity of the government throughout the country.
According to the election results announced by the Election Commissioner the government won the election. However, the abuse of power that was used to win that election was blatantly obvious. The massive use of government resources during the elections and particularly the horrendous abuse of the government radio and television channels for attacks on the opposition candidate and to garner support for the incumbent president were on an unprecedented and scandalous scale.
The political reasons for this arrest are as follows:
To disrupt attempts by the opposition to put up a strong opposition at the parliamentary elections which are due in the coming months;
The government is desperate to have sufficient strength within the parliament and had made moves to co-opt the opposition into a kind of cooperation with the government. However, the opposition refused and the presence of Sarath Fonseka in the opposition would be a strong reason for the moral of the opposition in the parliamentary elections. Silencing him would be an important component in the strategy of trying to suppress the opposition in the coming elections.
For disrupting attempts by the joint opposition candidate and the opposition parties to file petitions for the annulment of the last election results;
The opposition has openly announced that it does not accept the results of the last presidential election and that it will file petitions in the Supreme Court for the annulment of the election and that work to this end was in progress. The arrest of Fonseka would be part of the manipulation to disrupt this process.
A further purpose of the persecution of this popular politician is to silence him with regard to the war crimes allegations made against the Secretary of the Ministry of Defense and others relating to the conduct of the final part of the war against the LTTE.
Sarath Fonseka has openly declared that if there are international inquiries into this matter he will divulge all he knows about the allegations of such war crimes and that it is the obligation of anyone to do so. The Secretary of the Ministry of Defense was questioned regarding allegations of war crimes the last time he visited the United States. This was kept secret and only divulged later. The rivalry between the Secretary of the Ministry of Defense and Sarath Fonseka on this issue is well known. During the election campaign both the Secretary of the Ministry of Defense and Sarath Fonseka spoke out strongly against each other about their involvement in the war against the LTTE. Thus, the arrest of Sarath Fonseka may be an attempt to silence a strong witness against allegations of war crimes.
To Revenge daring criticisms against ruling family;
The arrest and persecution of this opposition politician might also be revenge for the strong criticism he made against President Rajapakse and his family during the elections. One of the major grounds of his election campaign was to promise inquiries into allegations of what he called massive corruption on the part of the government. He repeatedly stated that if he came to power he would inquire into all allegations and the culprits would be brought to justice. The present arrest may be directed towards revenge and the humiliation of the greatest critic of the Rajapakse family in recent times in Sri Lankan politics. The present regime is known for strong acts of political revenge and they are suspected to be behind the murder of Lasantha Wickrematunge.
Wickrematunge was assassinated and other journalists have left the country for fear of repercussions. In the recent elections one journalist, Prageeth Ekanaliyagoda went missing and another editor of an opposition journal was imprisoned. There are daily demonstrations and protests against acts of political revenge in the country. This period is becoming known as one of great political revenge and the attack on the most prominent critic of the regime and particularly, the Rajapakse family may be one of the purposes of the present arrest. While some legal pretext have been created for the arrest by allegations of military misconduct the actual reasons are perceived to be part of a massive political campaign against this prominent political figure as well as the opposition in general.
What ever be the governments motive, this arrest is the most explosive event to happen in recent times. Its implications are many. Certainly, ultimate outcome is not good for the regime.
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