Denial denied

United National Alliance candidate Sarath Fonseka in an interview to the Sunday Leader said Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa instructed a key ground commander in the North that all LTTE leaders must be killed and not allowed to surrender.

In the lead story under the by line of Sunday Leader Editor Frederica Jansz, Fonseka was quoted as saying that no information was communicated to him in the final days of the war and that three key LTTE leaders opted to surrender to Sri Lanka's Armed Forces as the battle drew to a bloody finish. Fonseka however subsequently at a news briefing said a journalist told him that Gotabhaya Rajapaksa had ordered Major General Shavendra Silva (then Brigadier) to kill the LTTE leaders who offered to surrender but what he said had been misreported.

He said the State was using cooked up allegations against him by misinterpreting a newspaper interview given by him. In an interview with the electronic media this is what Fredrica Jansz said: "We never gave a misinterpretation. We never portrayed his statement in a manner it would create a misinterpretation. I met Sarath Fonseka one hour before yesterday's press conference.

He said our newspaper report has not given any misinterpretation to what he said. He said our report was correct but it created a political disadvantage for him. He also said that he would never deny his statement.