Shenali D Waduge

Brad Adams of Human Rights Watch has spoken. He says Mr. Fonseka’s appointment is a breach of trust for victims and families who believed in this government’s commitment to deliver justice for war crimes.” The election of 2010 just months after the elimination of the LTTE ground force and the manner that the Tamil voters voted en masse for Sarath Fonseka exercising their democratic right, clearly nullifies foreign notions of Fonseka as ‘military leaders suspected of widespread abuses’. That all polling divisions except 1 (Kayts) in the entire Northern Province voted for Sarath Fonseka shows that they did not consider Fonseka a war criminal while the TNA endorsed Fonseka as common Presidential candidate. If Tamils did not consider him a war criminal in 2010 how can that change in 2016 or because people like Brad Adams of HRW or other UN entities says so?

The UNF comprised the United National Party (UNP), Sri Lanka Muslim Congress(SLMC), Democratic Peoples Front(DPF) and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party faction led by Magala Samaraweera, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna(JVP) which strongly backed Fonseka

2010 Presidential Elections – Sri Lanka / Northern Province results

Out of the 11 polling divisions of the Jaffna district, Mahinda Rajapakse as President secured only 4611 votes in the Kayts polling division, all other 10 polling divisions were won by Army Commander Sarath Fonseka.

Out of the 3 polling divisions of the Vanni district, all 3 polling divisions voted for Sarath Fonseka.

The postal votes of Jaffna district also went to Sarath Fonseka while the postal votes of Vanni district went to Mahinda Rajapakse.

Even the displaced votes of both Jaffna and Vanni district went to Sarath Fonseka with overwhelming majority.

Jaffna district

Jaffna District Final results

Sarath Fonseka = 113,877 (63.84%)

Mahinda Rajapakse = 44,154 (24.75%)

Vanni district

Vanni District Final results

Sarath Fonseka = 70,367 (66.86%)

Mahinda Rajapakse = 28,740 (27.31%

• http://www.topssrilanka.com/article11719-lankan-tamils-should-vote-for-fonseka-indian-tamil-party.html President of the Indian Tamil Party Dravida Kazhagam (DK) K Veeramani appealed to the Lankan Tamils to vote for Gen Sarath Fonseka in the forthcoming presidential elections
• TNA parliamentary group leader R. Sampanthan has told reporters that the opposition candidate General Sarath Fonseka agreed to implement the TNA’s proposal when he is elected to the post of President in Sri Lanka. The TNA Leader however has refused to give details of the confidential agreement they have worked out with General Fonseka. Mr Sampanthan has said that Mr Fonseka had primarily agreed to withdraw the High Security Zones in North and East and he also agreed to merge the Northern and Eastern Provinces, and also grant a common amnesty for LTTE suspects who are in government custody. – (source Ada Derana 7th January2010)
• In an interview with Vasanthan TV (reported in the Daily News on the 8th of January 2010) Mr Thurairetnasingam of TNA had stated that Mr Sarath Fonseka had agreed to comply with all their conditions and the party signed an agreement with him covering these issues. Mr Thurairetnasingam has reiterated that Fonseka and Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe signed this agreement and the copies of this agreement were sent to the foreign representatives too. We have already informed about this agreement to diplomats and the foreign Governments,”
• Memorandum of understanding between Fonseka and Sampanthan – http://dbsjeyaraj.com/dbsj/archives/2842
• http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/tamil-national-alliance-announced-support-for-general-fonseka/article75898.ece Tamil National Alliance announced support for General Fonseka
• http://www.dailymirror.lk/656/tna-calls-on-tamils-to-support-fonseka-for-presidency – TNA calls on Tamils to support Fonseka for Presidency – See more at: http://www.dailymirror.lk/656/tna-calls-on-tamils-to-support-fonseka-for-presidency#sthash.PjkltKzT.dpuf
• http://www.asiantribune.com/news/2010/01/14/ltte-elements-behind-tnas-decision-support-general-fonseka – LTTE elements behind TNA’s decision to support General Fonseka

Therefore, whatever Brad Adams, Human Rights Watch or any others have to say in Sri Lanka elections are democratically held. People exercise their franchise. The Tamils voted en masse for the army commander that led the forces to defeat the LTTE months before the elections. The Tamil voters did not vote for the then President Mahinda Rajapakse who was also the Senadhinayaka (head of the armed forces) and without whose orders the military victory would not have been possible.

Fonseka however has not performed at elections since 2010 election as a common candidate where islandwide he secured 41lakshs. He contested in the Colombo district in the 2015 Parliamentary elections and islandwide secured only 28587 votes, quite a comedown from 4.1m votes obtained in 2010. Though the people did not vote for him. Fonseka has re-entered Parliament based on the decision of the present Government to offer him a parliamentary seat via the UNP National List quota. We do not hear the democracy proponents complaining why people rejected by vote are sitting in Parliament as MPs. It is not only Fonseka most of the MPs in Parliament have been rejected by the People. It is very strange that the world is not complaining about this violation of democracy!

Returning to Brad Adams, all we can say is that his entire argument about Fonseka being accountable for war crimes is nullified by the fact that the TNA and the Tamil People all voted for him immediately after the LTTE was defeated. What better thumbs up can the army commander get than obtaining over 70% of the Northern votes!

Shenali D Waduge