As officers from the US Department of Homeland Security are preparing to quiz Chief of Defence Staff General Sarath Fonseka on November 04 regarding alleged war crimes that had taken place in the country, the government of Sri Lanka had officially objected and protested such moves and the Foreign Ministry had already summoned the US ambassador in Sri Lanka for an urgent meeting today morning.
A senior government official told Daily Mirror that General Sarath Fonseka was on an official visit to the USA and carried a diplomatic passport.
Therefore the US government has no right to quiz General Fonseka.
The high ranking official who did not want to be identified said that the Sri Lankan embassy in Washington and the Foreign Ministry are actively engaged in preventing such a move by the US and would do anything to stop it
Meanwhile, Chief of Defence Staff Sarath Fonseka in a letter to the Sri Lankan Embassy in Washington said he had been asked by United States officials to be a ‘source’ against Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, a highly placed diplomatic source said yesterday.
Two US officials from the powerful Department of Homeland Security had reportedly made the request from General Fonseka on his son-in-law’s telephone line. General Fonseka is currently on a private visit to US, had said in his letter.
General Fonseka said one of the officials had asked him whether he was prepared to be a ‘source’ against the ‘Defence Minister’ of Sri Lanka. General Fonseka had responded by asking him whether whom he meant was the President, who is the Defence Minister.
The official had then told him he had meant Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.
General Fonseka had said he was the Defence Secretary and not the Defence Minister.
This conversation had been followed with a formal request by the Department of Homeland Security for a ‘voluntary meeting’ with General Fonseka and later Sri Lanka’s ambassador Jaliya Wickramasuriya had retained lawyers from the Patton Boggs firm to assist the General.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka yesterday strongly condemned the US move to put pressure on its highest ranking military official by requesting him to give evidence against a top public official.
© Daily Mirror
Related Links:
US seeks info on Gota from Fonseka - The Island
US wants Fonseka 'to testify against Gotabhaya' - BBC Sinhala
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