Within hours after the post-Prabakaran Tamil National Alliance (TNA) formally announced its decision to back the candidature of Sarath Fonseka, commander turned politician and common Opposition consensus Presidential nominee for the January 26 poll, a senior Minister in the Mahinda Rajapaksa Government alleged that a `secret pact’ between the two was detrimental to the interests of the island nation.
At a news conference here, Media Minister Laksham Yapa Abeywardene called upon the TNA and Mr. Fonseka to make public the `secret agreement’ signed between the two parties and termed it detrimental to the interests of national security.
The Minister maintained that the contents of the secret agreement `looked harmful to the interests of the nation’ as the first condition by the TNA was to release LTTE suspects in custody and send them abroad. The reference of the Minister pertains to the nearly 12,000 odd Tiger suspects in the custody of either the military or the police.
Mr. Abeywardene argued that five conditions in the agreement between the TNA and Mr. Fonseka are `most detrimental to peace, stability and security. "If these suspects are released and sent overseas, the next phase of the Elaam struggle is inevitable". He charged that another condition was to reduce the State Intelligence Unit and disband High Security Zones in the North which would result in affecting the sovereignty of the nation. "I ask the General to reveal other secret clauses in the agreement", the Minister said.
The Minister also distributed copies of purported documents that he termed as `fraudulent arms deals’ in which the son-in-law of Mr. Fonseka is suspected to be involved and challenged the General to prove any allegation of fraud or corruption by the Rajapaksa family.In Parliament on Tuesday, Minister of Engineering Services Rajitha Senaratne had alleged that the Tender Board under Gen. Sarath Fonseka’s Chairmanship awarded the tender to his son-in-law’s company, Hicorp though it had not made a formal bid.
