Mr Wickremasinghe said this in an interview with the pro LTTE TV channel GTV (Global Tamil Vision) based in Europe, the editorial of The Island said today (January 22).

"Once the government gave the order, the service commanders have to go ahead and execute it. So, he was the commander who had to execute the orders given by the government... and the government gave the timeframe, and what should be done... and that's how the war developed", Mr. Wickremasinghe said.

If his claim is true, then how can Fonseka claim that he finished the war on his own before the end of his tenure as the army chief?, questions the Island Editor.

Full text of The Island editorial:

With barely four days to go for the presidential election, UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe has said something that is bound to have a devastating impact on Gen. (retd) Sarath Fonseka's election campaign, whose mainstay is the latter's claim that it is he who won the war.

Fonseka not only flaunts the defeat of terrorism as his biggest achievement but also claims that he kept his word that he would not leave fighting to his successor. He says he said he would finish the war before the end of his tenure as the army commander and honoured his promise. Even Ranil and other prominent UNP leaders who used to ridicule Fonseka and scoff at the army's battlefield achievements under Gen. Fonseka's command are now showering praise on him for the victory which they are trying to market in a bid to oust President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

But, Ranil has told GTV, based in Europe, that Fonseka only followed government orders to finish the war within a timeframe set for him. One is intrigued! If his claim is true, then how can Fonseka claim that he finished the war on his own before the end of his tenure as the army chief? For, the implication of Ranil's statement is that Fonseka only fought according to the government's time table and the defeat of terrorism before his retirement was a mere coincident.

What prompted Ranil to make such a statement at this crucial juncture? It is being argued in some quarters that he may have done so in good faith to woo Tamil voters by blaming the government for the war and the attendant collateral damage and by showing Fonseka to be a commander who had no alternative but to follow orders from on high and to do his duty as a professional soldier. But, Ranil could not have been unaware that in this info tech driven world where news travels faster than light, as it were, anything that is said for the consumption of one audience cannot be kept from another even for a few minutes. Is it that when Ranil spoke to GTV, he did not give two hoots about the impact of his statement in question on the southern constituency where Fonseka is heavily dependent on war victory in his presidential bid?

Or, was Ranil's claim at issue a Freudian slip? For, he had been very critical of Fonseka until last November, when he was compelled to throw in his lot with the latter willy-nilly for want of a better alternative, unable to contest the presidential election. Adversity, it is said, makes strange bedfellows. Ranil, as was said earlier, used to ridicule military successes under the present government and even refused to acknowledge Fonseka's role in achieving them. When Thoppigala was captured after fierce fighting, Ranil called it a jungle area sans any strategic importance not worth taking back and even questioned the map reading skills of the ground commander concerned. After the army wrested control of Kilinochchi with great difficulty, it was to the then Chief of Defence Staff Air Marshal Donald Perera, and not Army Commander Fonseka, that Ranil grudgingly sent a congratulatory note! Prejudices buried deep in the subconscious sometimes find expression unexpectedly.

If Ranil really meant what he told GTV about Fonseka and the war, then it may be inferred that the UNF-JVP-TNA combine is trying to run with the hare in the North and hunt with the hounds in the South.

It will be interesting to know the reaction of the JVP, which is basking in the reflected glory of the former army chief, to Ranil's assertion that Fonseka only did as the government said in finishing the war.

The best person who could tell us whether Ranil got it right or wrong is Fonseka himself.