AFP - Sri Lanka president sacks parliament: spokesman
Times of India – Sri Lankan parliament dissolved
The Hindu -Rajapaksa dissolves Parliament
CBC.ca – Sri Lankan parliament dissolved amid controversy
Indian Express – Rajapaksa dissolves Lanka Parliament
AP – Sri Lankan opposition calls nationwide strike after defeated presidential candidate arrested
President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s decision follows his sweeping victory at the polls last month, in which he secured a convincing re-election after defeating his former army chief Gen. Sarath Fonseka.
The new poll will choose the country’s next 225 lawmakers, said a senior government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with government policy.
Rajapaksa’s decision follows Monday’s dramatic arrest of Fonseka, the opposition’s leading figure, who last year led government troops in their crushing defeat of Tamil Tiger rebels.
CNN International – Opposition leaders: Sri Lankan general’s arrest ‘an abduction’
Voice of America – Sri Lanka Opposition Outraged by Ex-General’s Arrest
Oh the irony…….
Aljazeera – Wife outraged by Fonseka’s arrest
IBNLive - Gen Fonseka’s wife says Lanka govt framing him
Times Online – Arrested Sri Lankan opposition leader being treated ‘like an animal’
The Wire – Sri Lankan opposition leader arrested
Produced by Jacinta Patterson
In Sri Lanka, the main opposition leader has been arrested after the government accused him of what it termed ‘military offences’. Sri Lanka held its general election last month – the first since the end of the country’s lengthy civil war. Former military leader General Sarath Fonseca ran an unsuccessful campaign against his former commander-in-chief, President Mahendra Rajapaksa. His arrest came just hours after he told reporters he’d be willing to give evidence about war crimes he alleges took place during the conflict. Featured in this story: Dr Sam Pari, spokesperson for the Australian Tamil Congress; Dr Jake Lynch, director of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at Sydney University.
Telegraph.co.uk - China’s malign influence in Sri Lanka
by Peter Foster
The democratically elected Government of Sri Lanka has once again displayed its intolerance of any opposition by arresting Sarath Fonseka, the retired army general who stood against the incumbent president Mahinda Rajapakse at the recent election.
My colleague Dean Nelson gives a graphic account today of the violent detention of Gen Fonseka (retd) by a group of soldiers who dragged him off to an unknown place of detention.
This is the latest in a series of ugly developments in Sri Lanka which, over the last three or four years as the country has slid ever closer to becoming an authoritarian state under the chauvinist Rajapakse presidency.
Dissent against the government is increasingly not tolerated. Sri Lanka is now one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists, as was graphically demonstrated a year ago with the murder of Lasantha Wickrematunge whose letter from “beyond the grave” I posted at the time. If you have not read it before, I urge you to do so.
What does any of this have to do with China? Well, a lot really since the People’s Democratic Dictatorship of China is actively bankrolling the emergence of a new “People’s dictatorship” in Colombo that highlights the increasingly malign influence of China in global affairs.
Sri Lanka might be too small to “matter” but to see a South Asian democracy like Sri Lanka morphing into a corrupt, self-serving authoritarian state with the support of the Chinese state is a legitimate cause for concern. More
Water World -Saudi Arabia boosts Sri Lanka dam project with $46 million
Middle East North Africa Financial Network -Saudi Fund For Development to give $46m for Lanka dam project
Press Trust India – 100 SL Tamil refugees denied asylum by Indonesia
Nearly 100 Sri Lankan Tamil refugees were denied asylum by Indonesia as it was not a signatory to the 1951 UN Convention relating to the status of refugees, a senior Indonesian official said.
The Sri Lankan Tamils were aboard a ship at the Indonesian port of Merk last month, K J Kumar, Honorary Consul, Consulate of Indonesia at Chennai, who was here to deliver a lecture on ‘Indo-Indonesia relations’, told reporters here yesterday.
He said even under the UN convention, nations were entitled to their own procedures to ensure legitimacy of persons seeking refugee status.
“The nation has to be perfectly satisfied that asylum seekers are not serving as ruse for militants to infiltrate into this land disturbing peace and harmony,” he said.
Kumar said the Indonesian Government had offered to talk with the refugees, but the crewmen were not ready to send their representatives.
Inner City Press – As Sri Lanka Arrests Fonseca, Censors War Crimes and Calls Nambiar, UN Quiet
New York Times (08/02) – Cry for Self-Rule by Tamils Is Muffled by Reality
Jaffna is a city of ruins. Some are physical, like the overgrown jumbles of mold-streaked concrete where graceful buildings used to stand. But perhaps the biggest ruin of the Tamil Tiger insurgency against the Sri Lankan government is the very thing the Tigers wanted most: any hope of self-rule.
The Sunday Leader (07/02) – Sixty-Two Years Of Degeneration
About this time every year for the past 62 years it is customary for politicians participating at Independence Day commemoration ceremonies to speak of our glorious past and what a great people we have been for thousands of years. It was no different in Kandy last week, with ‘King Reincarnate’ President Rajapaksa in his Independence Day speech drawing parallels to great men who have done the country proud.
Money Control – Should India Bat for Tamils in Sri Lanka?
RIA Novosti – Russia lends Sri Lanka $300 mln for arms purchases
Financial Times – Sri Lanka refugees try to restart lives
Australian Tamil Congress - Sri Lanka seeks to silence war crimes claims
“General Fonseka’s arrest is a clear message that the Government of Sri Lanka will detain anyone – even its own military leaders, if they threaten to expose its appalling human rights record.”
Dr Sam Pari – Spokesperson for the Australian Tamil Congress (ATC)
“General Fonseka indicated he would reveal sensitive information regarding war crimes which were committed during Sri Lanka’s civil conflict. His arrest shows the extent the Government of Sri Lanka will go to silence anyone who threatens to speak out against it.”
“This should be a clear message to the Australian government and the international community that Tamils facing persecution in Sri Lanka cannot expect justice from the country’s political system.”
Please contact Dr Sam Pari for interview Ph: 0433 428 967
UK Guardian – Sri Lankan general held in crackdown
by Jason Burke, South Asia correspondent, and agencies
The defeated candidate in last month’s tense presidential election in Sri Lanka, General Sarath Fonseka, was arrested today at his office in Colombo and is to be charged with attempting a military coup to overthrow the government.
The sudden arrest of the 59-year-old former chief of Sri Lankan armed forces and the architect of their bloody but successful campaign against the Tamil Tigers last year, sparked fears of a widespread crackdown on opponents of the incumbent president, Mahindra Rajapakse.
A government spokesman confirmed that Fonseka had been arrested, saying he had been detained for “committing military offences”.
Later government minister Keheliya Rambukwella said Fonseka would be tried in a military court on charges of conspiring against the president and planning a coup while army chief.
“When he was the army commander and chief of defence staff and member of the security council, he had direct contact with opposition political parties, which under the military law can amount to conspiracy,” Rambukwella said.
“He’s been plotting against the president while in the military … with the idea of overthrowing the government,” he added.
Fonseka’s wife is reported to have confirmed the detention of her husband following an increase in the number of security forces deployed outside the hotel he used as an office during the day.
Allies of Fonseka described his arrest during the course of a planning meeting with political allies. Rauff Hakeem, leader of the Muslim Congress party, told Reuters that the general had been “dragged away in a very disgraceful manner in front of our own eyes”.
Fonseka appears to have resisted arrest. Mano Ganeshan, an opposition member of parliament, said the general was “forcibly carried away” after having objected to being arrested by military police rather than civilian officials.
“He was humiliated and disgraced in the way he was handled. We were just flabbergasted,” Ganeshan said.
Fonseka, who has repeatedly alleged that the elections were fraudulently won by Rajapakse, was planning to campaign in parliamentary polls due to be held by April.
Speculation about the detention of the general had mounted over the weekend with Sri Lankan newspapers reporting on Sunday that Rajapakse had sought legal advice from government lawyers about trying his political rival in a military court.
Hours before his arrest, Fonseka, who himself has been accused of a range of human rights abuses during the fighting against the Tamil Tigers last year, had said he was prepared to give evidence at international tribunals investigating the 25-year-long civil war. “I am definitely going to reveal what I know, what I was told and what I heard. Anyone who has committed war crimes should be brought into the courts,” the BBC reported him as saying.
Montreal Gazette – Amnesty blasts Sri Lanka for opposition leader arrest
Indian Express - Rajapaksa strikes, arrests Fonseka, slaps plot charge
Voice of America – Losing Presidential Election Candidate Arrested in Sri Lanka
AFP – US concerned on Sri Lanka arrest
Aljazeera – Political unrest in Sri Lanka
Financial Times – Sri Lanka opposition candidate arrested
Hindustan Times – Lanka ex-army chief Fonseka held, may face court martial
Business Standard – Fonseka arrested; to be court martialled
The Hindu – Fonseka detained
