By : A.A.M.NIZAM – MATARA

The asinine and moron Sarath Fonseka before he was sponsored by the American Ambassador in Sri Lanka Patricia Butenis to contest the Presidential Election of 2010 against Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa was the most hated person in the Sri Lankan Army for the UNP politicians and was ridiculed and mercilessly attacked by them as a man who is only fit to lead the salvation army, a bovine, a man taking the army to Medawachchi instead of kilinochchi and to Pamankada instead of Alimankada, a man running a clandestine killer and torture unit of the army which was responsible for the murder of Lasantha Wickrematunga on Jan 8, 2009, attempt to kill the then Rivira editor Upali Tennakoon on January 23, 2009, abduction and assault of Deputy Editor and the then defence correspondent of The Nation, Keith Noyahr, on May 22, 2008 and so on. These allegations were mainly made in Parliament by Ranil Wickremasinghe, Joseph Michael Perera, Mangala Samaraweera, Lakshman Kiriella, Ravi Karunanayake and a host of others.

For political expediency and for washing the dirty linen of the government and for making threats to anti-government elements Ranil Wickremasinghe with the concurrence of Maithripala Sirisena got Fonseka who couldn’t even get 5,000 votes all over the island during the 2015 election appointed as a national list UNP MP to fill the vacancy created by the death of Minister M.K.A.D.S, Gunawardene.. At the same time his rank was upgraded as Field Marshal and was appointed as the Minister of Regional Development, we wonder what, where and which development he has made so far.

The pro-Tamil Diaspora and soul-mate of LTTE rump Jusmin Souka’s (member of infamous Darusman gang) South America based International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP) has filed a war crime case in Brazil and Columbia against General Jagath Jayasuriya who was the Ambassador of Brazil, Columbia, Peru, , Argentina and Suriname. Jayasuriya returned to Sri Lanka hurriedly after the case was filed by Souka’s ITJP in each of these two countries under his purview as ambassador for Sri Lanka., While petitions are yet to be filed in Argentina, Chile and Peru. Only Suriname has downright refused to permit action to be filed against Jayasuriya. The aim of the ITJP is to utilize Jayasuriya as a pawn to initiate an investigation and later expand it to cover all our top war heroes such as Wasantha Karannagoda. Roshan Gunatilleke, Shavendra Silva and Kamal Gunaratne, who played crucial roles in the War to vanquish the Tiger Terrorists.  As per defence and legal analysts this move will also include former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, incumbent President Maithripala Sirisena, and former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa among others.

Immediately after Jagath Jayasuriya returned following the filing of cases against him, Fonseka told a media conference that he holds information with regard to war crimes committed by Jagath Jayasuriya and that he was ready to give evidence if proper legal action was instituted against him.  He said that Jayasuriya was engaged in crimes as Vanni commander and even after he was promoted as army commander. Fonseka’s this move is similar to his earlier attempt to implicate Gotabaya Rajapaksa saying that Mr. Gotabaya ordered to kill the surrendered LTTE high fliers in the so-called White-Flag incident.

Now he has come up with another serious allegation that General Jagath Jayasuriya, the Vanni Commander during his tenure as Army Commander had committed crimes. Political analysts indicate that as happened during the white flag controversy, the Tamil diaspora and the Tamil separatist groups here would pick up Fonseka’s allegations against Jayasuriya and it might come up during the next UNHRC sessions in Geneva as well. They say that even eight years after the end of the war, the allegations about war crimes and violation of international human rights and humanitarian laws are still haunting Sri Lank and the last report by UN Human Rights Chief Zeid Al- Hussein was not as friendly as his previous reports had been and therefore it is imperative for the government to speak in one voice about the issue. They commend the President’s vowing to defend all Commanders who played leading roles during the war, from alleged human rights violations and war crimes.

Fonseka who now stupidly tries to implicate Jagath Jayasuriya to attain his personal vendetta and allow Souka to use Jayasuriya as a prey against Sri Lanka has gone in records many a time the Army that he commanded during the war against the LTTE, never committed war crimes or violated international human rights or humanitarian laws.

Faizer Shheed who is a law tutor and an independent researcher of laws has in an article to the local newspaper’Ceylon Today’ has pointed out the following:

Perhaps Fonseka may have forgotten that Jayasuriya was being charged with command responsibility in the first place, and not for actions of his own volition. Perhaps, Fonseka had forgotten that he was the Commander of the Army during the final stages of the war when the alleged war crimes was said to have occurred.

Shaheed points out that command responsibility was instilled through the Geneva Conventions of 1929 and Article 26 of the Geneva Convention of 1929 a superior officer in the armed forces is held not to be absolved from any war crime of a lesser officer, is incriminated under Additional Protocol 1 (Article 87) and the Rome Statute which Sri Lanka has not ratified. However, command responsibility is also recognized in multiple places in the Hague Conventions, to which Sri Lanka is signatory. The Geneva Conventions and the Hague Conventions are recognized as Customary International Humanitarian Law, however, the protocols are exempt unless the country has ratified”

He says that Rule 153 of the Customary International Humanitarian Law states that: “Commanders and other superiors are criminally responsible for war crimes committed by their subordinates if they knew, or had reason to know, that the subordinates were about to commit or were committing such crimes and did not take all necessary and reasonable measures in their power to prevent their commission, or if such crimes had been committed, to punish the persons responsible.”

This would mean that, should Sarath Fonseka purvey incriminating evidence against Jayasuriya, Fonseka too would have to face the consequences as the Commander of the Army, particularly due to the fact that Jayasuriya was a subordinate at the time.

The Tamil Diaspora and the official opposition of the government the despicable TNA have come out in support of Fonseka’s  loathsome statement. The economic refugees outfit called the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) has welcomed the statement and said ‘confirmation of war crimes by Sri Lankan forces comes after eight years of denial by successive Sri Lankan governments. This outfit has issued a statement saying that Fonseka’s confession to war crimes committed by forces under his command came on September 1^st and said that he has information about General Jayasuriya committing war crimes and that he is ready to give evidence and readiness to testify before a proper investigation. It has also pointed out that Fonseka even said that war crimes were committed even after the war ended and he has information regarding other ‘Officers who committed crimes’. Based on these odious statements the outfit has urged the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, UNHRC and others to act swiftly to bring perpetrators of these international crimes to face justice and states that the UN should not miss this opportunity. Meanwhile, the TNA has said that they would support Fonseka if he is going to divulge the truth.  TNA leader Sambandqn has said that if Fonseka comes forward to give evidence before an international tribunal they are prepared to assist him.  He has told the Jaffna daily ‘Uthayan’ that this trial should be held in the form of a Hybrid Tribunal in the presence of foreign judges.  It is surprising to find their buddies in the government the red elephants JVP remaining silent on this issue implying their non-opposition to Fonseka’s utterances and the TNA stand..

However there are many comments by politicians in favour of and opposition to Fonseka’s mad utterances and would like to mention these comments briefly as well.

• His condemnation of Ven. Elle Gunawansa Thero as a madman is a very serious matter, and the Ven. Thero had corrected even the mistakes of President Premadasa by giving right admonishions”     former President Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa

• “Is Minister Fonseka in his proper senses? It is not a small matter for a Minister to claim that a former army general committed war crimes!” MP Mr. Wimal Weerawansa
• Fonseka is acting in a senseless manner” – Ven. Elle Gunawansa Thero,
• Fonseka’s statement is personal” – Minister Lakshman Kiriella
• Fonseka should be removed from the Minister post and the Field Marshal rank should be recalled” – MP Mr.Vasudeva Nanayakara
• Arrest Fonseka for telling lies and withholding information” MP Mr.Udaya Gammanila.
• Fonseka is not a traitor” Nincompoop Minister Mahinda Amaraweera
• Toppigala wild forest Ranil Wickremasinghe too remains deaf, dunb and blind (DDB) similar to JVP.

There seems to be a strong hatred among peace loving patriotic masses in the country about the despicable statement made by treacherous Fonseka.  This can be observed in the social media and comments that had been made by the public to news relating to this issue that appeared in the newspapers and websites.  It is a bounden duty and responsibility of the government to make a statement on this issue on a national level and take appropriate action against Fonseka as it has been demanded by many. (niz)