Sri Lanka's top defence official has suggested to execute the country's former army chief if he continues to allege the top military officials of ordering war crimes during the final stages of the war against the LTTE terrorists a year ago.
Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa in an interview with Stephen Sackur of BBC's Hardtalk programme said that Retired General Sarath Fonseka, who is currently being detained pending two courts-martial on separate charges should be executed as a traitor if he tried to betray the country and lie against the soldiers.
"He can�t do that. He was the commander," Rajapaksa had said. "That�s treason. We will hang him if he does that. I'm telling you. How can he betray the country? If he says he is a liar."
When the interviewer asked whether he would execute Fonseka for testifying before an international tribunal on alleged war crimes the Secretary corrected him saying that Fonseka should be executed for betraying the country.
"No, what I am saying is for betraying the country, lying, betraying soldiers. Isn't that a crime isn't that treason," he asked.
Responding angrily to the interviewer's questions Secretary Rajapaksa said not to drag General Fonseka into the issue as he was lying for political gains when he was contesting the elections.
When asked what is going to happen to General Fonseka, the Defense Secretary said the court-martial will decide his fate.
Rajapaksa had repeated a promise by the president that the authorities would not allow any international investigation into the conduct of the armed forces. "We are an independent country, we have the ability to investigate all these things," he had said.
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