Sri Lanka arrested former army commander and losing presidential candidate General Sarath Fonseka at his office on Monday night, for what the army said were military offences.
Fonseka lost by an 18 percent margin to President Mahinda Rajapaksa at a January 26 election, and since then has accused his former commander-in-chief of rigging the vote. The government in turn has accused him of a coup and assassination plot.
"He was dragged away in a very disgraceful manner in front of our own eyes," Sri Lanka Muslim Congress leader Rauff Hakeem told Reuters. One of Fonseka's security officers, I.P. Herath, confirmed the account of Fonseka's arrest by military police.
Military spokesman Major-General Prasad Samarasinghe said the arrest related to offences from Fonseka's time in the army, which ended in November when he quit and entered the presidential race.
"General Fonseka has been arrested on charges of committing military offences," Samarasinghe said in an official statement broadcast by the government Information Department.
The Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFÉ) yesterday said that they had asked the Elections Commissioner for carbon copies of the result sheets issued at each counting centres in the presidential election, but he had not responded to this request.
The Director of CaFFE Keerthi Thennakoon said that they made this request on January 31 adding that this was evidence of how the election were conducted. “This is the third letter we are sending him because we have received no response for the previous two,” he said
Thennakoon also said that CaFFE was not allowed to participate in the election process and therefore was not allowed to monitor the integrity of the election.
He also charged that party representatives at some counting centres had not received copies of the results of the recently concluded presidential election. The Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFÉ) has called on Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake to immediately send these copies of the total votes polled at the counting centres to their representatives.
Several media and people's organizations came together and organized a protest in front of Colombo Fort Railway Station today (Feb. 08) against what they called the repression of media institutions and threats to media personnel.
They joined hands under the banner of 'Journalists Against Repression.'
Speaking here, secretary of the Free Media Movement Sunil Jayasekara accused the government of clamping down on the media after the presidential election.
As part of that clampdown, a partly successful attempt had been made to seal off a newspaper.
With 15 days gone since the disappearance of freelance journalist Pragith Eknaligoda, police are yet to find any clue about his fate, said Mr. Jayasekara.
The detention of 'Lanka' editor Chandana Sirimalwatte without a charge is an indication of the government’s media repression, he said.
Several journalists in state media institutions who had not joined the government’s political propaganda campaign have lost their jobs, while many others have been attacked by state-sponsored thugs, the FMM spokesman added.
Rtd. Gen. Sarath Fonseka who contested the recent presidential election as the opposition common candidate was arrested by the military police last night for what the army cited as committing military offences and fraudulences during his period in service. He is now expected to be court martialled.
Military spokesman Maj. Gen. Prasad Samarasinghe told the Daily Mirror that Gen. Fonseka was arrested around 9.30 pm.
At the time of his arrest Gen. Fonseka was at his office having a meeting with JVP leader Somawansa Amarasinghe, SLMC leader Rauff Hakeem and Democratic People’s Front leader Mano Ganeshan on the possible strategies to contest the upcoming general election and on filing a petition against the alleged election malpractices on polling day, according to sources close to him.
An eye witness to the incident said several army officers broke into the room where the discussion was being held and asked Gen. Fonseka to come with them. However, he had refused to do so insisting that he would deal only with the civil police. He had then inquired about the charges served on him for his arrest. The army officers had apparently read out some charges in accordance with the military law. (Reaed More)
President Mahinda Rajapaksa is expected to dissolve parliament tonight with the general election likely on April 8, sources close to the government said yesterday.
The term of the present parliament ends on April 22 but the President can with a presidential proclamation end its term earlier and he is expected to do so when he returns to Sri Lanka today.
The week between February 19 to 26 would likely to be the week for nominations, sources said.
Political parties have begun making preparations for the election with some prospective candidates pasting their posters on city walls.
The last general election was held in April 2004 and the UPFA secured a majority of seats. Meanwhile, up to today 40 MPs who were elected on the UNP ticket
have crossed over to the ruling UPFA with all of them being appointed as Cabinet, non Cabinet or Deputy Ministers. (Read More)
Opposition activists and their families have been forced to flee their homes and go into hiding in the jungle and chenas to avoid attacks by political opponents, the opposition and independent poll observers said yesterday.
Rampaging armed mobs are on a witch-hunt of people who openly sided with or worked for the opposition's common candidate, General (Retd.) Sarath Fonseka, at the controversy-ridden presidential elections, they said.
Opposition party sources and poll monitors said they had so far received more than 300 complaints which included raids on homes, serious assault, shootings and threats.
"The situation in some places is frightening and the law enforcement authorities are stretched to the maximum in trying to maintain the peace," said Themiya Hurulle, spokesperson for the National Democratic Party (NDF), the party from which Gen. Fonseka contested the January 26 poll. (Read More)
"I am Prasanna Perara. I live in Kottawa, in the Pannipitiya area. When polling cards were being distributed for this time's presidential elections, our house also gets four polling cards. My brother, myself, my mother and father. These polling cards were distributed on the 24th. I saw it on the morning of the 25th. When I saw it, there was stapled to the polling card this sign of a beetle leaf with a cross marked alongside. When I asked my father who stapled this, he said that the card was received in the same manner. When I asked further, he said that the postmaster had distributed it and that he had not considered it to be that much of a problem, because of the way he will cast his vote. But it was a problem for me. After seeing this in the morning, I went to the Pannipitiya Post Office. But they informed that the postmaster was not in. After this, I told someone in the post office that I wanted to talk about this issue further. They were hesitant to do so, and said that they were extremely busy these days.
What I say is this. Who has the power to commit such a gross violation of election laws? This is a completely unlawful act. I don't have time to do anything about this now. There is only one day left for the election. I had no way to even tell the media about this today because there was no time, and the election will be held soon.
All I want to say is that the public should be more aware of these acts that go against elections."
