Unbecoming of a Field Marshal – GSLF

The Global Sri Lanka Forum (GSLF) has flayed Regional Development Minister Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka for his allegations against former Army Commander General Jagath Jayasuriya.

The following is the full text of the statement issued by Ranjith Soysa on behalf of the GSLF: “The statement of the Minister Sarath Fonseka that he would volunteer to testify against Gen. Jagath Jaysuriya, if called upon to prove that the latter had committed war crimes, is indeed distasteful and impetuous. The Minister has repeatedly said on previous occasions that the security forces did not commit any war crimes and it was a war to defend the country from the grip of a bunch of terrorists. He may have forgotten his own public utterances on the war as the Commander of the army or is it merely a case of trying to embarrass a fellow officer by acting indignantly.

“Sarath Fonseka’s rush of words, added insult to injury when referring the Gen. Jayasuriya’s alleged mishandling of funds etc., which is entirely different to the issue of war crimes. His hasty reactions of wild irrationality failed to identify the pro-LTTE financed push to activate a number of FNGOs in some Latin American countries at the behest of Yasmin Sooka, , who leads a number of operations to blacken the image of Sri Lanka; she was also a member of the highly biased Ban-ki Moon commission!

“Fortunately, the President, a number of senior ministers, a good number of Parliamentarians, and members of the Maha Sanagha have registered their protest against the Field Marshal.

“We should not play the giddy goat to achieve the malicious objectives of one’s agenda at the expense of the security forces which liberated over 285,000 Tamil children and adults from the tyranny of the brutal Tiger terrorists and created a liveable space for all Sri Lankans.

“We trust that Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka will not forget to affirm his much publicised statements assuring the world that war crimes were not committed by the Sri Lankan defence forces.

“While we, the Global Sri Lankan Forum, deplore the statement made by the Field Marshal, we call upon all right-thinking leaders and the public to stand firm with the defence forces which helped to create a peaceful Sri Lanka by sacrificing tens of thousands of their members including the thousands that remain disabled or are counted as missing.”