Sandasen Marasinghe Courtesy Daily News

National Freedom Front Leader Wimal Weerawansa yesterday referring to statements made by Opposition Presidential candidate Sarath Fonseka said he had become part and parcel of an international conspiracy to bring President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and other war heroes before an International War Tribunal.

Weerawansa made this observation at a press conference held at the Media Centre for National Security (MCNS) with reference to General Sarath FonsekaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s interview published in the Sunday Leader yesterday.

Weerawansa said Fonseka was just a contractor in an international scheme to defame the image of our war heroes and destabilize the Government rather than becoming a Presidential candidate and this act of betrayal was historic and topped all the other betrayals including the Millennium City betrayal in the Sri Lankan political history.

Weerawansa remarked that international forces that did not have any proof to charge our leader or the war heroes of genocide had attempted to make such an allegation against them using a leader in the battlefront. Fonseka was fulfilling that international conspiratorsƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ need as a contractor.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Weerawansa asked Fonseka not to commit the crime of defaming the image of the war heroes who freed the country from the clutches of terrorism.

Mass Media and Information Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa and Disaster Management and Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe categorically denied the statement made by Fonseka.

Minister Samarasinghe said the act was a betrayal of the nation, country, people of this country and the colleagues who fought with him in the war front by his side.

He also condemned the statement as one of the worst betrayals made with political objectives for personal gain. He also brought to the notice that Fonseka at a felicitation ceremony at Ambalangoda on July 10 stated that as a valiant soldier he fought on the battlefront taking his own decisions an d did not abide by decisions taken in air conditioned rooms. Fonseka has also said that he was instructed not to harm any body who surrendered to the Army.

Minister Samarasinghe said FonsekaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s statement to the Sunday Leader that the Defence Secretary instructed to shoot surrendees, is contradictory to what he has said in Ambalangoda.