By

Bandula Jayasekara

One morning the then Secretary to the President Lalith Weeratunga called and asked me, “What have you done? President, Gotabahya and Sarath Fonseka are very angry. What has the journalist you helped visit Sri Lanka written. He has written what General Fonseka didn’t say?” I requested Lalith to calm down and explained to him that Stewart Bell was a respected Canadian journalist from the National Post who always wrote against terror and was considered a balanced journalist and that is why I wanted him to have easy access in Sri Lanka. Lalith said: “It has become a big issue here and its making things difficult for us. The opposition, the international community and , Tamil Nadu are making an issue out of it after the publication.”

I immediately called Stewart, who had written a series based on his visit to Sri Lanka to the National Post. Several articles appeared when he was in Sri Lanka. I respected Stewart as a balanced and very responsible journalist. I knew he wouldn’t get anything out of context. This is an excerpt of the interview General Sarath Fonseka had given to Stewart and published in The National Post on 25 September 2008.

“In an interview Lt Gen Fonseka talks candidly about the war, which he believes will be over in less than a year, and his views on the militant Tamil nationalism that has spilled from Sri Lanka into countries with ethnic Tamil Diasporas, Canada included. “The national leadership basically is determined to solve this problem” he says. “The task given to us is to eradicate terrorism … if we have the same commitment one more year the LTTE’s destination is, I think, decided. In the General’s view, the war is driven by Tamils who want a homeland and have chosen Sri Lanka as the place. But, he says the country’s ethnic Sinhalese majority will never allow the ethnic Tamil minority to break the island apart.

“Lt Gen Fonseka is a competitive swimmer who won the US Green Card lottery, but has remained in Sri Lanka, heading the army he has served for three decades. He is lucky to be alive. On April 25 , 2005, a suicide bomber attacked his limousine in Colombo. He was seriously injured in the assassination attempt and nine others were killed. The Tamil Tigers never claimed responsibility for such attacks but were almost certainly behind it.

“I strongly believe that this country belongs to the Sinhalese but there are minority communities and we treat them like our people” He says. “We being the majority of the country 75%, we will never give in and we have the right to protect the country. We are also a strong nation. They can live in this country with us. But, they must not try to, under the pretext of being a minority, demand undue things”

“He dismisses concerns by international human rights groups about the conduct of his forces, saying that while civilian deaths are inevitable in war, relatively few non combatants have died in the Sri Lankan conflict. The guerrilla’s central problem is man power, he says. During the current phace of the civil war, the Sri Lankan forces have killed 8000 rebel fighters in the north and 2000 in the east, while another 1000 have been killed in air strikes. According to the amy’s calculation , that leaves the Tamil Tigers with no more than 4000 remaining cadres while the Sri Lankan forces have 250,000 men and women and plenty of weaponry. “So it’s a matter of time ” Lt Gen Fonseka says”

I am sure you would have found out what the bone of contention was and why Lalith called me. Stewart told me that morning he had reported exactly what General Fonseka told him, word to word. He added that Sri Lanka should be thankful to him rather than trying to blame him because if he had written everything Fonseka told him, it would have created a huge uproar. Bell said he had it all on tape and if I wanted to listen to it he can play it for me. I told him that I believed him and immediately called Lalith Weeratunga and told him what Stewart had to say. I told Lalith it was wrong to blame Stewart and he was not only a damn good reporter but a gentleman. Lalith listened to me attentively and said ” Ah! Is that so? I will inform them.” I knew Lalith understood what exactly happened. Stewart was not to be blamed.

Later some government henchmen in Sri Lanka tried to blame me for what Fonseka had said. They were looking for a scapegoat. How many people can speak to the media and stand up for what they have said without chickening out and blaming the messenger. I was very angry and was equally hard in my various communications to Colombo. I told them point blank, “Don’t blame me if people don’t know what to say or have no control over their tongues. Don’t blame me for sending Stewart Bell to Sri Lanka. National Post has been very fair to Sri Lanka.” The respected newspaper was the first to open its pages to me as the Sri Lankan Consul General having invited me to speak to the editorial board. They always had the time and space for me and Sri Lanka whilst Toronto Star supported the LTTE and its backers. I was invited on several occasions to write Opinion pieces to the Post.

I travelled to Sri Lanka on several occasions thereafter and even met Gotabaya and Sarath. They never asked me anything on the matter.

Courtesy:The Island