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Sri Lanka army
chief exposes sinister truth
WSN Network
COLOMBO: In
revelations that will hardly endear the Sri Lankan establishment to
the human rights lobby and to the Tamil diaspora around the world,
Sri Lanka Army chief Sarath Fonseka now fighting for President's
position as the opposition's candidate, has said that Sri Lankan
soldiers were ordered to kill surrendering leaders of the Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) during the war that finished off the
rebel group in May.
Fonseka made the
startling revelation in an interview to a local paper, Sunday
Leader.
"General Fonseka
explained how on the night of May 17 this year, desperate efforts of
three senior LTTE leaders trapped in the war zone to save their
lives failed as they were instead shot dead as they prepared to
surrender to government forces," the paper said. The government had
claimed troops found bodies of three key LTTE leaders -- Nadesan,
Pulidevan and Ramesh -- during the mop-up operations on May 18. A
key army commander was given the order to kill by defence secretary
Gotabhaya Rajapaksa during the last stages of the war, Fonseka said.
Fonseka said he
did not know of the order till later. He was not in Lanka at the
time.
Defence
secretary Rajapaksa is the younger brother of President Mahinda
Rajapaksa, who is seeking another term.
Minister for
human rights and disaster management Mahinda Samarasinghe said
Fonseka's statement was a "betrayal based on untruth". But the fact
remains that the revelation has further cast much cloud over the
human rights record of Sri Lankan government.
16
December 2009
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