1.When he was arrested on February 8 , Gen.G.Sarath Chandralal Fonseka became the first retired Sri Lankan Army chief, to be arrested.
2..It was under Lt. Gen.Fonseka that the Sri Lankan army comprehensively defeated the dreaded Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) long thought to be invincible because it was the most ruthless and resourceful terrorist group in the world.
3. Fonseka performed this feat in a three year campaign which ended in the killing of the LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran and practically all his lieutenants in late May 2009.
4.After the war, a greatful government promoted him as General.He thus became the first full-fledged General of the Sri Lankan army.
5.Fonseka was the first army General to have talked on political ,principally, the ethnic issue. He created a furor by telling a Canadian journalist that Sri Lanka belonged to the Sinhalese and that the other ethnic minorities like the Tamils could live here but could not ask anything other than what the Sinhalese have got.
6.He was also very sensitive to criticism and was known to have organised a gang of armymen on his own to attack journalists and others who he felt threatened by.The assaults, murders and abductions carried out by this shadowy group, including the murder of editor of The Sunday Leader , Lasantha Wickramatunge, brought a bad name to the Rajapaksa government internationally. A serving Brigadier is currently under arrest in this case.
7.After the war, Fonseka asked the government to increase the size of the army to 300,000. An alarmed President Rajapaksa openly said that such a big army was dangerous for the government and the country.
8.Rajapaksa began to clip Fonseka;s wings.He asked him to leave the post of Army Commander and made him Chief of Defense Staff, a mere advisory post.
9.In October 2009, the government sensed that Fonseka was planning a military coup along with his gang of officers.On October 13, Rajapaksa asked Indian for help.India put some of its air and naval units in south India on alert. But the coup was a false alarm.
10. Stung by this, and the drastic reduction in his personal security, Fonseka resigned from the post of CDS and declared his intention to contest the January 26 Presidential election. The joint opposition put him as their candidate.
11.Fonseka exploited the peoples’ grievances over the rising cost of living, but he made a blunder by getting into an alliance with the pro-LTTE Tamil National Alliance. The Rajapaksa camp dubbed him a LTTE acaolyte.
12. Fonseka’s interview to a weekly paper accusing the President’s brother and Defense Secretary of ordering the killing of surrendering LTTE leaders, enabled the Rajapaksa camp to dub him a traitor.
13.Fonseka lost the election badly getting 40.15 percent of the votes,against Rajapaksa’s 57.8 percent.
14.While Fonseka accused Rajapaksa of rigging the election, Rajapaksa began investigations into an attempt to stage a military coup immediately after the Presidential election. Evidence was quickly gathered and several people including armymen, were detained ,questioned and compulsorily retired.
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