Word: fonseka
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Former army chief Sarath Fonseka stood before a court-martial March 16 on what he called a "bogus" charge of engaging in politics while in uniform. Fonseka, arrested after losing a January election to President Mahinda Rajapaksa, says the detention is intended to prevent him from winning a seat in April's parliamentary elections. The two former allies are credited with ending the nation's civil war with the Tamil Tigers...
...Sarath Fonseka was a brilliant general, but the faculties that brought him victory over Tamil separatists in the country's 26-year civil war deserted him in politics. By standing in January's presidential election as the head of a motley coalition that included Marxists, Muslims and vanquished Tamils, Fonseka intended to offer a legitimate challenge to President Mahinda Rajapaksa. All Fonseka did was outrage him. Now, the former general has been arrested on unspecified charges of conspiring against the government. Rajapaksa's administration is often accused of alleged abuses (including extrajudicial killings of Tamils and journalists...
Some 2,500 supporters of Sarath Fonseka took to the streets to protest the retired general's arrest on Feb. 8 for "committing military offenses." Fonseka had challenged President Mahinda Rajapaksa in a Jan. 26 election, the country's first since the end of a 26-year civil war last May. Former allies, the two quickly became foes, with Fonseka alleging election fraud and claiming that his life was threatened following Rajapaksa's victory. Fonseka is set to be court-martialed at a later date...
...Lawyers representing Fonseka are planning to petition the Supreme Court challenging his arrest and seeking a decision declaring the poll null and void, Tissa Attanayake, the general secretary of the United National Party said. The opposition has already raised objections to the elections commissioner over vote rigging, but commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake has since declared the elections, which President Rajapaksa won by a majority of 1.8 million votes, as fair...
...protest, however fiery, is unlikely set off any tremors. Colombo was back to business soon after the protest was over. The traffic was once again bad, the buses were belching, and the heat unbearable. Die-hard Fonseka supporters have vowed to continue the protests, which have yet to gain the support of wider civil-society groups. "We will go on. We will not stop till our general is given back to us," Vinni Siegera, a middle-aged woman who had attended the rally without an invitation, told TIME, beads of sweat on her forehead. The next few days will make...