By De Silva

Dear Aparna,

I was deeply moved by reading the contents of your circular letter regarding General Fonseka. As a father of two children I am saddened and shaken by the fact that General Fonseka has been dragged away and kept incommunicado without medicine and other basic needs and your mother or anyone else seem to unknow where he is kept and her appeal to the authorities and tears moved every one to empathise with her and it was the silent prayers that the authorities should permit her to give the daily medicine that is necessary for the surgical intervention that your father underwent as a result of serving the country is of no use.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ I believe now the authorities have permitted your mother to see the General but yet we could jointly make our appeal heard to obtain his release.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Therefore, I have decided to start a campaign amongst my friends and everyone else to obtain the unconditional release of your father. But before I do that I would hasten to ask some questions from you, so that I will be clear in my private conscious that I am doing the correct thing on behalf of my country.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The questions are :

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 01) Why did General Fonseka make a statement in the month of July at a Reception to felicitate him held at Ambalangoda that he has destroyed all levels of LTTE leadership? By doing so, circumvented the the rules and conventions of war with regard to the treatment of prisoners of war, admitting the killing of those who came to surrender hoisting white flags. This was reported verbatim in the Tamil Net and was submitted by LTTE Diaspora active, in the US to the US State Department which has included the statement in its congressional report to the Senate.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 02) Did your father during the last stages of the war and immediately after that before his resignation divulged very sensitive information which transpired at the Security Council meeting which is governed by the Oaths and Security Act, ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ to Hon. Ranil Wickramasinghe and Hon. Mangala Samaraweera. The information revealed has paved the way for the LTTE to frame further charges against the very Army that your father led. The evidence of such disclosure made by your father on the 04th of January 2010 at a media briefing with esteem and pride, ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ not knowing that he is violating the very procedure which he is under oath not to disclose..

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 03) The fact that after the initial disclosure in July, that your father made the second such disclosure to the Sunday Leader with regard to the instructions given by the Defence Secretary to one of the most astute and frontline Ground Commander, Major General Shavindra Silva implicating both with the destruction of unarmed Tamisl who surrendered to them by hoisting white flags. Your father later strived to correct this position as the Government and media showed your father in the most deplorable image of a traitor who had sacrificed his junior officers as cannon fodder to the LTTE Diaspora who were waiting to bring them before War Crime Tribunal. There he said he will take the full responsibility as the ground commander and no such incident took place.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 04) Immediately thereafter at a meeting at Ratnapura he changed his position and reiterated his earlier position that he will not defend anyone who has committed war crimes. Although his earlier position that no one committed war crimes and the army he lead was disciplined force, ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ but if there is any investigation on charges that are preferred, he will take upon himself the allegations and defend himself.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 5) But it is only a few days ago that he made another statement to the BBC Sinhala Service stating that he was willing to give evidence as a witness at a War Crime Tribunal and he will not defend any one who committed war crimes and would definitely expose all those who have done so. He would not hesitate to disclose what he heard and what he was told.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Aparna, the statement your father has made even during the election was self-contradictory and full of rhetoric of a confused man but still as a former hero, the Army Commander who crushed the LTTE and who prides himself on the accolade given by others that he is the best Army Commander of the World who would never betray his motherland and the ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”RanawiriuwaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ whom he has vowed to protect as his own life.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Lastly that he being a novice to politics and being swayed by the crowds he drew at meetings thinking that only days separated from him being elected the Head of State oblivious to the sacred oath he has taken made a statement at a media briefing which is captured on video that, when he was in the US to obtain his Green Card when Home Land Security was approaching him to question him on the alleged war crimes which had been reported and documented in the congressional report submitted to the Senate, he has spoken to Mr. Tilvin Silva, Secretary of the JVP and sought advise from him whilst on duty.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Aparna, if you will agree if these facts are true and for most of them there is no additional proof as admitted by your father, he is guilty of High Treason and would have been executed under the good old days, but is sufficient to sentence him for 05 years rigorous imprisonment under the Army Act.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The great service rendered by your father to the country could be used to mitigate the sentence imposed by the military tribunal.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Yet, all of us who stood fearlessly for him as against many odds even if he is acquitted by the Military Tribunal or a Criminal court our private conscious would render a different verdict that he has from the position of the greatest war hero this country produced would now be relegated to greatest traitor after Ehelepola Adikaram.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ His association with traitors who did everything within their power subvert Your father resolve to destroy the LTTE has relegated him to be a traitor is the saddest thing that happened to him.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ When the historians pen their chronicles is there any other conclusion that one could come to.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Aparna let me quote a passage from Robert Bolts famount play A Man for all seasonsI that when statesmen forsake their own private conscience for the sake of their public duties, they lead their country by a short route to chaos

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚