The government yesterday totally denied the allegations made by former Army Commander General Sarath Fonseka that the Defence Secretary ordered to eliminate all the surrendering LTTE cadres during the final stages of the battle.

Addressing media in Colombo Minister of Human Rights and Disaster Management Mahinda Samarasinghe said the statement by the former Commander "is a great betrayal of the nation, of the people, and above all, of his colleagues in combat who fought side by side many of whom paid the supreme sacrifice and were injured and emerged victorious" for a narrow political gain.

The Minister also brought to the notice that former Commander at a felicitation ceremony at Ambalangoda on July 10 stated that as a valiant soldier he fought on the battlefront taking his own decisions and did not abide by decisions taken in air conditioned rooms. The retired General has also said that he was instructed not to harm any body who surrendered to the Army.

Minister Samarasinghe said Fonseka’s statement to the Sunday Leader that the Defence Secretary instructed to shoot surrendees, is contradictory to what he has said in Ambalangoda.

National Freedom Front Leader Wimal Weerawansa said Sarath Fonseka had become part and parcel of an international conspiracy to bring President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and other war heroes before an International War Tribunal.

He said Fonseka was just a contractor in an international scheme to defame the image of our war heroes and destabilize the Government rather than becoming a Presidential candidate and this act of betrayal was historic and topped all the other betrayals including the Millennium City betrayal in the Sri Lankan political history.

Weerawansa remarked that international forces that did not have any proof to charge our leader or the war heroes of genocide had attempted to make such an allegation against them using a leader in the battlefront. Fonseka was fulfilling that international conspirators’ need as a contractor.

Weerawansa asked Fonseka not to commit the crime of defaming the image of the war heroes who freed the country from the clutches of terrorism.