Every attempt by the Tamil people to come to a fair solution was rejected by the Sinhala chauvinist regimes. A ferocious Tamil insurgent movement was the result of this idiotic politics of Sinhala rulers. After allocating such vast sums of money to the war, they did not allow any opposition member to raise questions about these allocations or on how these will be spent.
by Dr Vickramabahu Karunaratne
(October 10, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) I was against this war conducted to crush the Tamil insurrection. We are told no widows in the north, as war victims. That is the bottom line. Devastation has consumed thousands of people. That is why it comes under the category of a genocidal war. I firmly believe it was a war without heroes. So, Sarath Fonseka is not my war hero. Nor do I agree with his politics which I then classified as more right wing than that of Mahinda. I claimed that the global powers maybe seeking a better arrangement through Fonseka in case Mahinda came down. I am not going to change what I said about the man or his politics. But now I am in the middle of the campaign to get his freedom. I am there because I feel a heinous crime has been committed against this man by the Mahinda regime. It is so absurd to see that a man who was classified by this regime as a hero and a great patriot who stood for the liberation of the nation; in a matter of months, imprisoned today by the same regime, classified as a thief and a traitor to the nation, devoid of any dignity. All those were done without any public hearing or proper involvement of the judiciary of the country. The president appoints committees; those conduct investigations, and then come to conclusions about the charges made. Thereafter the president certifies the verdict. What is more one could expect from a constitutional dictatorship! “Former army commander Sarath Fonseka was convicted by the second court martial which found him guilty of having contravened military procurement procedure while he was army commander. This court martial tribunal consisted of Major General Milinda Peiris (president), Major General Lalith Daulagala and Major General Mahinda Hathurusinghe. The tribunal forwarded its decision with the recommended sentence under confidential cover to President Mahinda Rajapaksa who was the convening authority as commander-in-chief.
Court martial verdict
President Mahinda Rajapaksa approved the second court martial verdict which carries a three-year prison sentence. Fonseka was convicted on the charge of dishonourable conduct by awarding four tenders to Hicorp Pvt Ltd in which his son-in-law Danuna Tillekaratne had vested interests. The court martial said Fonseka as the tender board chairman had failed to divulge and disclose his relationship to Danuna Tillekaratne until his retirement from the army”. However, we were told during the war that obtaining supplies to the armed forces have to be done with much care and secrecy. Hence there could not be open tender procedure in this process. Obviously the LTTE was prepared to attack anybody and everybody who gave the slightest help to the war efforts of the government. What else could one expect from a well organized and well-knit committed nationalist insurgent organization? However, in this case he was accused of obtaining some military equipment through a company that had connections with his son-in-law. Was it because his family members could have become targets for the Tamil rebels? Did he callously and carelessly put his child in danger by this particular transaction? Was this the crime? From the way that the government defended their arbitrary procurement procedures, I expected Fonseka’s action, to be accepted as a gallant operation that put not only himself but his kith and kin in danger. Oh no, he has done a grave crime by getting military equipment in the best possible method! If one is seriously interested in looking into the actual loss to the country by this war, then the number one culprit will be the great commander in chief himself! For so many years, budget after budget allocated nearly 20% of the national income of this poverty stricken island for a mad war to decimate a people who struggled against discrimination and oppression. Every attempt by the Tamil people to come to a fair solution was rejected by the Sinhala chauvinist regimes. A ferocious Tamil insurgent movement was the result of this idiotic politics of Sinhala rulers. After allocating such vast sums of money to the war, they did not allow any opposition member to raise questions about these allocations or on how these will be spent.
Government leaders
Year after year, government leaders told the public that the war was conducted with great honour and dignity. Even recently the president told us that everything in the war was done with great supervision and the army commander was not more than an errand boy. Accordingly all honour and credit for the war should come to Mahinda and Gotabhaya. Their hawk like supervision prevented any fraud or malpractice. Now what? All that proved to be a lie and mere bragging? Certainly this war was a rotten business. I never expected anything better. But it is worse now. We now witness the complete decadence of the chauvinist regime that has started to devour itself, part by part. In its decay it has produced a great opportunity for the opposition; particularly to the social democratic opposition.
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