REFUGEE

Sri Lanka denied charges by the former army chief that surrendering Tamil rebel leaders were ordered to be shot, saying General Sarath Fonseka is trying to make political gain as a candidate in next year’s presidential election.

Fonseka, who is standing as the main opposition candidate against President Mahinda Rajapaksa in the Jan. 26 ballot, has “betrayed the nation” with his comments, Mahinda Samarasinghe, the minister for disaster management and human rights, said late yesterday in Colombo. “The allegation is done to discredit the government for political advantage.”

The general, in an article in the Sunday Leader newspaper, said Defense Minister Gotabaya Rajapaksa issued orders “not to accommodate” any leaders of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam trying to surrender during the battle with the last rebel forces near the northeastern port of Mullaitivu in May.

The defeat of the LTTE ended its 26-year fight for a separate Tamil homeland in the north and east of the South Asian island nation. Rajapaksa, seeking to capitalize on his government ending the civil war, last month called the presidential election two years before his mandate expires.

Fonseka told the newspaper that three LTTE leaders were shot dead while trying to surrender to government forces as the battle came to an end.

White Flags

Samarasinghe, at a news conference late yesterday, read out a statement Fonseka made in July while serving as army commander that said the army never killed any terrorist leader who surrendered with white flags.

“These two statements of General Fonseka are contradicting each other,” the minister said, adding that several LTTE leaders, including Daya and Charles Master, surrendered with white flags and were looked after.

The general’s statement is part of efforts to destabilize the country, Samarasinghe said. The government is studying whether to take legal action over the newspaper article, he said, according to the Media Center for National Security.

Rajapaksa declared victory over the Tamil Tigers in May after the army killed rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran and his commanders in the Mullaitivu battle.

The U.S. State Department in October released a congressionally mandated report listing accounts of army shelling of civilians and killings carried out by the LTTE in the final weeks of the war.

Sri Lanka’s government has ordered an investigation into the allegations while saying the report is “unsubstantiated.”

Opposition Candidate

Fonseka, 58, will be the candidate for the opposition Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, or People’s Liberation Front, and the United National Party, in the election. The general, who resigned in November as chief of defense staff, says there have been moves to take the credit for the defeat of the LTTE away from the army.

Rajapaksa, 64, who leads the United People’s Freedom Alliance, has pledged to rebuild a united country after the civil war.

While Sri Lanka in July received a $2.6 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund, the end of the conflict has boosted agriculture and tourism.

The central bank forecasts the country’s $41 billion economy will grow as much as 6 percent next year after expanding about 3.5 percent in 2009. Overseas investment in Sri Lanka rose about 10 percent in 2009 from about $3 billion last year, Central Bank Governor Nivard Cabraal said last month.

The country’s exports that include tea, rubber, textiles and clothes may start to grow in the first quarter of 2010 after dropping for 10 consecutive months, he said.