Sri Lankan forces eliminated surrendering Tiger leaders on the orders of the defence secretary who had instructed that “all LTTE leaders must be killed”, ex-army chief Gen Sarath Fonseka has claimed, prompting the government to describe it as a “great betrayal”. In an explosive interview to The Sunday Leader, Gen Fonseka, opposition Presidential candidate, said no information was communicated to him in the final days of the war that three key LTTE leaders — Nadesan, Pulidevan and Ramesh — had opted to surrender. Fonseka said that communications were instead confined between the LTTE leaders, Norway, various foreign parties, Basil Rajapaksa, Member of Parliament and the powerful senior adviser to the President and such information was never conveyed to him as he supervised the final stages of the war.

“Later, I learnt that Basil had conveyed this information to Defence Secretary Gothabaya Rajapaksa – who in turn spoke with Brigadier Shavendra Silva, Commander of the Army’s 58th Division, giving orders not to accommodate any LTTE leaders attempting surrender and that ‘they must all be killed’,” he said. Fonseka’s remark drew sharp reaction from the government which described it as a “great betrayal”. Disaster Management and Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe, who addressed an urgently called media briefing, said Fonseka owes an explanation on his charges as it would tantamount to speaking against the army which had a clean record.

Samarasinghe, who along with two other ministers attended the media briefing, said this contradicted Fonseka’s own statement on July 10 where, among other things, he said he was being restrained from taking action against the LTTE. Fonseka, who resigned last month accusing the government of sidelining him, said it was President’s advisor Basil Rajapaksa together with Gothabaya Rajapaksa who through foreign intermediaries conveyed a message to the LTTE leaders who wished to surrender to walk out carrying a piece of white cloth. “It was their idea,” he said, adding sometime between midnight on May 17 and the early hours of the next morning, the three men and their family members were shot dead.