Sri Lanka president orders ex-army chief freed

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse (front C), along with Commander of the Navy Chief Somathilake Dissanayake (L), Air Force Chief Air Marshal Harsha Abeywickrama (rear C) and Police Chief N.K. Illangakoon (R) pictured during the Victory Day parade in Colombo, on May 19. © AFP Ishara S.Kodikara

COLOMBO – Sri Lanka’s president has ordered the release of his jailed electoral rival, ex-army chief Sarath Fonseka, bowing to a US demand three years after the end of the island’s long Tamil civil war.

The former four-star general will be able to leave prison on Monday after formalities are completed, an official said Sunday, after President Mahinda Rajapakse marked the third anniversary of the Tamil Tigers’ crushing defeat.

Fonseka was arrested two weeks after he unsuccessfully challenged Rajapakse’s re-election in January 2010.

“President signed the papers (ordering Fonseka’s release) on the 18th evening… before leaving for Qatar (on Saturday),” spokesman Bandula Jayasekera said. “Papers will be sent to the Ministry of Justice on Monday.”

Fonseka, 61, is credited with leading the military campaign that crushed the Tamil Tiger rebels in May 2009, but also encouraged international calls to probe the alleged deaths of up to 40,000 civilians in the war’s final months.

The once feared Fonseka was regarded by the United States as a political prisoner and Washington had repeatedly called for his release.

President Rajapakse issued the release order after his foreign minister, Gamini Lakshman Peiris, met in Washington on Friday with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for talks on the island’s human rights record.

In this file photo, taken in January, Sri Lanka's jailed ex-army chief and opposition leader Sarath Fonseka is seen as he arrives at the Court of Colombo. Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse has ordered the release of Fonseka, according to the presidential spokesman. © AFP/File Ishara S.Kodikara

Clinton believed that Sri Lanka has put forward “a very serious” plan for reconciliation after its civil war, and urged the government to move forward on protecting human rights, the State Department said.

The United States had asked Sri Lanka to improve press freedom and human rights, and also “de-militarise” the former war zone in the island’s north. But Rajapakse, in an address to the nation Saturday, ruled out a troop withdrawal.

In the speech marking the victory anniversary, Rajapakse made no reference to his erstwhile military chief, who has been stripped of his rank and pension by a court martial.

Fonseka fell out with Rajapakse over who should take credit for ending the savage ethnic bloodshed which killed up to 100,000 people between 1972 and 2009.

He had also angered the government by saying he would gladly testify before any international tribunal probing possible war crimes charges, after the UN said thousands of civilians were killed in the last months of fighting.

The terms of his release were not immediately clear. But his wife Anoma Fonseka said on Thursday, after meeting the president, that she expected him to “be cleared of all charges and released unconditionally”.

Two weeks after his election defeat in early 2010, Fonseka was detained on charges of meddling in politics and corruption relating to military procurements, and was given a 30-month jail sentence in September 2010.

In November 2011, Fonseka was sentenced to three more years in jail for saying that surrendering Tiger rebels had been killed on the orders of the president’s brother Gotabhaya Rajapakse, who is the defence secretary.

Sri Lanka has denied that any civilians at all were killed by its troops at the climax of the war.