No right to denigrate Forces

Duminda Guruge and Prarthana Weerasinghe

Although Sarath Fonseka has the right to join any political group he has no right to denigrate the heroic Forces who liberated the country from terrorism, SLFP Treasurer Minister Dullas Alahapperuma said.

He was responding to a claim by Fonseka on Sunday to the media that terrorism could not be defeated in the past due to weaknesses in the Forces. "Isn't this a slur on our heroic Forces?," the Minister asked.

He was expressing regret at the statement made by Fonseka that although rulers in the past including Ranil Wickremesinghe provided political leadership to end terrorism the weakness in the Forces failed to accomplish this task.

The Minister observed that the world has already accepted that we have a great military and that all Army Commanders led the Forces efficiently and that this time due to the correct political leadership we were able to see an end to terrorism.

He noted that Fonseka had debunked his own claim going by an incident where he happened to sign a order to retreat as the then Jaffna Commander when the political leadership ordered a withdrawal under international pressure when the Forces were closing in on Elephant Pass.

"Although Sarath Fonseka has a right to do politics with any party or group, he should not slur our heroic Forces who liberated the country."

He said there was no doubt that had Vellupillai Prabhakaran been alive he would have been a major partner in this Alliance.

The Minister was addressing a UPFA press conference at the Mahaweli Centre.