Q: We can start out very idealistically, but the reality is that it is bags of money that win elections. Without money you can't do anything much. You need money to run a campaign, to advertise, print posters etc., so if you are to win an election how are you going to match them first of all resource-wise?

A: Money as you say is needed to certain extent, but it is not everything. There are lots of moneyed people who have lost. Those who spent rather moderately have also done well at elections. At the moment we are not contesting, but for other activities we have enough financial support. There are lots of people who are giving us substantial financial support. As you can see we are doing lot of things and all that cost lot of money. Basically, even to pump petrol and diesel to vehicles every month you have to spend couple of hundred thousand rupees in today's context, but there are people supporting us and there will be more people joining us.

Q: Had the UNP Leader contested the last presidential election after mocking the war, he would have received such a severe drubbing that he would have been consigned to the dustbin of history. So, he used you to get over that problem. In the same manner there are foreign forces trying to use you to topple this government, but afterwards if you come they will do the same thing to you.

A: I come in what sense ...

Q: That is if you get elected. For example in 2001 they helped get Ranil Wickremesinghe to come to power, but they pulled the rug from underneath his feet by first of all giving him an economic dead rope insisting that he should only have austerity measures, meaning no subsidies, no recruitment etc., that finally led to his downfall at the next election. Simply, these foreign interests only want permanent chaos here to help their hidden agenda. Likewise they might help you to topple this government, but remember these are the same people who used to accuse you of committing all types of excesses during the war. So they might press those same charges against you if you come to power.

A: Up to now nobody from outside countries has contacted us or we have not been having anything to do with anybody that you can prove...

Q: Obviously, they will not show their hand. They always operate underneath.

A: If they are trying to do things without our knowledge, they can try and see, but we have a clear set of principles and I have been saying that all these problems that you are talking of are there because of the present culture of politics in this country. We have to change this culture of politics. We have to get people to think differently. That is what I am trying to do. Otherwise people will get fooled and played out. At the end of it they will not get anything. But we want to do genuine and sincere politics. That is why I am looking for sincere people, sincere characters to change the culture of politics in this country. That is why I am also not joining any of the parties at the moment because I have a different agenda.

Q: But in this country the people are always voting in a funny manner. They always vote for either a coalition led by the UNP or the SLFP.

A: This is the history of this country.

Q: How are you going to change that?

A: When I fought the war the people said the same thing.

Q: War and politics are not the same.

A: I am telling you in the war also many people said the same thing. Nobody could win this. Fonseka can't do it either. If it is happening in a different way in other countries why are you trying to brand Sri Lanka as a place where there can't be civilised politics? There is civilised politics and democracy in other countries. If we want this country to prosper we have to introduce civilised way of doing politics, elections, democracy and everything else. If we are negative then we will sink.

Q: No sooner had the war ended you pitched into the government making all sorts of allegations of corruption. But, having been in the army all these years even before this war started, you would have seen how many a senior officer enriched himself at the expense of the country and the respective service. Some of them even lost their family members due to corrupt practices preventing the acquiring of what is really required by the forces. But, since the final war was fought to a finish with a sincere will and purpose you could have been more patient and worked from within to correct any wrongs. Even the UNP and the JVP just wanted to ride to power on your back.

A: They depended on me because they did not have a proper candidate. That is a different argument. But why should I do politics with this government. Then I could have continued with the same way I was working under this government in the same position in uniform. I had two more years to serve and I had all the perks, the security ...

Q: Then why were you in such haste?

A: It was not in haste. What was the point in delaying it? If I had continued to work with them under so much corruption I would have had to come out one day. Then somebody will again say you have come out in haste.

Q: Hemakumara Nanayakkara, who left the government recently wants to form a rainbow type coalition to oust the government. But, the tragedy is that the rats in the government who have been enjoying the good life so far, sensing a possible downfall of the regime are secretly negotiating with him with the hope of forming the next government.

A: This is the political culture of this country. This is exactly what I want to change. I want to make sure that politicians can't go before the people, get their vote, go to Parliament and then bargain for various personal positions. I want to change that system. Now everything is done for their own personal benefit, not for the interest of the country.

Q: Some people blame your haughty character for scaring Ranil Wickremesinghe. They say you didn't even show some simple courtesies to him that he deserved as the senior UNP politician, party leader and the Leader of the Opposition.

A: I respected him in the manner I had to respect him. He respected me as the presidential candidate of the common opposition. Otherwise, if he is scared of me ... in other words he is scared of my popularity and nothing else. That is not my problem. You can see there are lots of problems in the UNP. It is not only between Fonseka and the UNP leader. I have no basic problem with him. I have never uttered a word against him.

Q: He is not going to leave his position.

A: That is his problem, but I have not uttered a word against him.

Q: There was speculation that the UNP offered you the party deputy leadership after its working Committee decided to extend the term of its leader to six years.

A: They were all rumours. They had only said at a media briefing that I should buy a 20 rupee ticket and join that party.

Q: Even at the end of the war you wanted to beef up the army even more and wanted to have army cantonments all over the country, but then during your presidential campaign you suddenly talked about withdrawing the army.

A: I never said the army must be withdrawn immediately. Even at that time as army commander I never said keep the army forever. Depending on the situation at the particular time I recommended the deployment of the army. I said beef up the army and give it additional strength because the soldiers had to get some rest. When we captured Jaffna, it was done with 15,000 soldiers, but when we had to hold it after that for fifteen years we had 35,000 troops. So holding requires more troops. So I recommended that I need about another 80,000 troops. Normally in the army at least one fourth should be away from deployment, for training, rest, leave and various other reasons. That is what I recommended, but these people did not understand it. They are all selfish and they did not listen to me. They were not bothered about soldiers rest and recuperation. That is why more soldiers are deserting now than during the war. Up to now about 70,000 soldiers have deserted after the war. During the final war for three and a half years so many soldiers did not desert.

Q: Western nations are pressing us to speed up the withdrawal of the army from the north. With the LTTE threat far from over, how should we tackle the issue?

A: The eelam threat is not over because the government failed to look into the requirements and needs of the affected people. They only rushed the sending out of the people who were in IDP camps because they didn't want to spend money on them. They were playing out money that was coming for the purpose of resettling, development of infrastructure in those areas, the maintenance of IDP camps. Lot of money that was coming from India and various other countries they played out. Then they rushed the IDPs to settle without proper infrastructure facilities. That is why they are worried that there will be an LTTE threat again. They should have attended to things systematically cleared the area, restored infrastructure like tank bunds, roads, culverts, schools, hospitals and various other requirements. Instead, they sent the people back with each family given three GI sheets plus one bag of cement or something and wanted people to resettle. As a result the situation is still volatile. If it had been done properly, by this time, the relocating the army as required could have been done to return to a state of near normalcy, but they have failed to do that.

Q: They have done tremendous amount of infrastructure work, especially what we have seen in the east is almost unbelievable compared to what it was earlier.

A: The best way of playing out money for them is through roads and bridges. If one kilometre can be constructed with Rs. 20 million, they are spending Rs. 110 million. That is why they are so fond of construction. Is that the only thing you require in the country?

Q: True there is corruption, family bandyism and various other wrongs taking place, but if the UNP comes to power tomorrow things will not be any different going by past experience.

A: That is why I am talking about a different political culture. I don't want the fall of this corrupt government to see the rise of another corrupt regime. We have to ensure that the people who love the country and are not corrupt come to power. You don't think that is possible.

Q: We don't believe for a moment there are so many saintly politicians in this world. Most are in it for themselves.

A: In other countries also there may be little bit of corruption, but they do their job properly. They can�t play out the way they do it here and survive, in those countries, for that matter even in India. You are talking as if the corruption here should be taken granted. It has to be eradicated. If you think so negatively what is the future of this country?

Q: Can you tell us something about your son-in-law? How did he stage the great escape?

A: That, of course, you have to find out the day you meet him. We don't know.

Q: What are the chances of his coming back?

A: He will come back the day there is justice in this country. He is hiding now because there is a threat to his life. We heard their plans, whereby they wanted to catch him during the election and assassinate him so that my morale would go down.

Q: But that would have meant blood on their hands.

A: They had a plan to take him to the CID and do something. Lots of people taken to CID custody have died there in the past. They wanted to create a situation like that so they could knock me down mentally.

Q: Just after the war you ordered a huge shipment of armaments. Why was that?

A: Not a huge order for armaments. It was for US $ 200 million for which we had already signed agreements. This was the balance. And during the war my armoured corps, which I commanded was started with 80 tanks, the number came down to 30 by the end of the war. These people did not approve of the repairs during the war. So in the last days of the war I had to do fighting mostly without armoured vehicles. So we had to maintain these regiments. When vehicles are condemned they have to be written off. So I had the idea of using the $ 200 million to replace those armoured vehicles. That was my duty as the commander of the army.

Q: What is your stand on the Parliamentary Select Committee proposed by the government to find a solution to the ethnic problem? Will you all participate in it?

A: You can give lot of things on paper, but unless there is reconciliation whatever you give will only aggravate the situation.

Q:In cut and dry terms for them any settlement requires the permanent merger of the north and east provinces and land and police powers.

A: Don't talk about police and land. I am talking about the general situation before you decide on the constitutional changes and what you can give and what you can't give. First, get the people to live together. They must not be suspicious about each other. If the people in the south are suspicious about the people in the north, then what ever you give the situation will get aggravated. The hatred will increase. The distrust will increase.

Q: Will your party get involved in the PSC deliberation process to find a final solution?

A: If the outcome again is a solution on paper, we will be wasting time. What I stated earlier has to take place beforehand. Then a base conducive for a solution will be created. After that a solution will have to come.

Q: For Tamil leaders their baseline for a permanent solution is the permanent merger of the north and east, and police and land powers.

A: This is what the Tamil politicians have been harping on and politicians from both sides have been talking on various lines for their own survival.

(Island)

A group of Govt MPs have informed Minister Basil Rajapaksa that they are not going to support the 19th Constitutional amendment bill if it attempts to hinder the Provincial council powers or make any suggestions regarding the Executive Presidency. Govt sources say that under these circumstances the Govt has faced a problem of rallying a 2/3 majority in the Parliament as this has caused a 8 MP shortage. Lanka News web site reports that although the Govt had previously planned to call upon a Presidential election on March next year after bringing in the 19th Constitutional amendment, changing the Presidential election time period from 4 years to 3 years and changing its period of office from 6 years to 5 years, due to the lack of majority, it has faced trouble.

The eldest daughter of the former JVP leader, Rohana Wijeweera was arrested by the police after a complaint was filed against her by her mother, Police Spokesman SP Buddhika Siriwardena stated. Rohana Wijeweera has four daughters and a son while the arrested daughter was the eldest. She is due to be presented to courts for allegedly assaulting her mother, police further stated.

Articulating right demands and slogans in Genocide Remembrance events is crucial at a time when the Eezham Tamils in their homeland are barred from even silently mourning their heroes and civilians who sacrificed their lives in the culmination of the genocidal war at Mu"l"li-vaaykkaal, said a Tamil political activist from Jaffna commenting on the slogans used by protestors at the May 19 event at Marina beach in Chennai. Civil society activists, artists, political leaders and ordinary people had participated a mass gathering near the Kannagi statue in the honour of those Eezham Tamils who perished in Sri Lanka"s genocidal war despite dissuasion by the police. Speaking to TamilNet from the gathering, Umar, an activist from the May 17 criticized the failure of UN in preventing the genocide, stating that Sri Lanka must be hauled in the UNSC.

Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP) leader Minister Douglas Devananda, an advocate of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, yesterday said the delegation of land and police powers to the provincial councils should be held back for the time being when constituting to the Northern Provincial Council (NPC). In an interview with Daily Mirror, Minister Devananda said there appeared to be dissension in the south over the delegation of such powers to the Provincial Council (PC) and therefore, it should be held back till an understanding between the two major communities - Sinhalese and Tamils - was built up. "If there is no delegation of such powers when forming the Northern Provincial Council, the Tamil people will be concerned. Likewise, Sinhala people will be concerned if these powers are delegated. Therefore, it is advisable to hold it back for the moment until there is understanding," he said.

Respect for basic rights and liberties has declined in Sri Lanka in the four years since the government defeated the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). This week marks the fourth anniversary of the brutal civil war's end. Since the end of the 26-year-long civil war, the Sri Lankan government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa has resisted taking meaningful steps to investigate and prosecute alleged war crimes by government forces and the LTTE, end the crackdown against the independent media and human rights activists, and stop ongoing abuses against suspected LTTE supporters. Government pledges to address the concerns of the ethnic Tamil population have gone unfulfilled. "Four years after Sri Lanka's horrific civil war ended, many Sri Lankans await justice for the victims of abuses, news of the 'disappeared,' and respect for their basic rights," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "Instead, the Rajapaksa government has rejected investigations, clamped down harder on the media, and persisted in wartime abuses such as torture."

Protests by the fishermen community and political parties have yielded result with the Sri Lankan government ordering the release of the 26 Karaikal fishermen on Monday. The fishermen who are in the custody of the Sri Lankan government will be released after being produced before the Lankan court, said Union Minister of State V Narayanasamy. "Orders for the release have been issued after the intervention of Union Minister for External Affairs Salman Khurshid, Indian High Commissioner in Sri Lanka and Sri Lankan Ministers of Tamil origin," Narayanasamy said. As the relations between India and Sri Lanka were not good due to agitations against Sri Lanka in Tamil Nadu, securing their release took lot of time,he added.

Former Colombo Deputy Mayor Azath Salley who shot to fame as a result of his arrest, today said President Mahinda Rajapaksa was the ideal person to bring about proper peace and reconciliation. Mr. Salley told a news conference that President Rajapaksa's own family comprised members of different religions and ethnic groups who lived peacefully. Therefore he said it would be easy for the President to establish peace in the country in the same way he had maintained peace among his own family members. The Former Deputy Mayor thanked the Ministers in the government, several countries and opposition politicians who played a role in securing his release from prison. He recalled that many had worked towards his release, although he was not even a member of a local authority.

Vanni district parliamentarian Sivasakthi Anandan has received a written order to report to Criminal Investigation Department (CID) regarding a function held at the Vavuniya Town Council Hall on May 18th to commemorate the war victims. Mano Ganeshan, the leader of People's Democratic Front has stated that by ordering Sivasakthi Anandan to report to CID the government has violate the public right to commemorate dead which is recommended in a report in the Presidential Commission. Speaking to 'BBC Sandeshaya' he has stated "the provisions in Learned Lessons and Reconciliation Committee (LLRC) report clearly indicates that the public must be provided with an opportunity to commemorate dead. However the government has not allowed it. The MP who was involved in the commemoration has been ordered to report to CID".

The Russian Federation has requested Sri Lanka's support to win the bid for hosting EXPO 2020, the Government Information Department reported. The Head of the Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independence States-Russia, Konstantin Kosachev when he met Sri Lanka's Prime Minister D.M.Jayarathna has emphasised how important the vote of Sri Lanka is for Russia to host EXPO 2020. Russia is competing for the votes of 162 countries along with Thailand, Turkey, Brazil and UAE. Kosachev has briefed the Sri Lankan PM that Russia expects to conduct this exhibition in Yekatennburg which links Asian and European countries and around twenty million people from foreign countries are expected to attend this exhibition. Kosachev has reiterated that it would help Sri Lanka to meet its goal of attracting 2.5 million tourists.

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of Sri Lanka has commenced recording statements from the family members of people disappeared in the Matale area during the 1988-1989 insurrection of the Marxist party Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP). The CID has so far recorded the statements from the families of 13 persons who had claimed that their loved ones were among those killed and buried in the Matale mass grave. The mass grave in Matale was unearthed at the Matale Hospital premises last November and 154 skeletal remains were exhumed from the grave. It is believed that the skeletal remains unearthed from the Matale mass grave were of insurgents from the JVP killed during the 1988-89 violence. Matale magistrate and additional district judge Chaturika de Silva earlier this month ordered the CID to record statements from the relatives of the missing persons.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), which is now being drafted by the Illankai Tamil Arasu Kadchi (ITAK), is expected to be released to the four Tamil National Alliance (TNA) political partners to resolve the longstanding stalemate in registering the TNA as a political party before the announcement of polls to the Northern PC , political sources said yesterday. The Bishop of Mannar, Dr Rayappu Joseph also earlier intervened to invite the leaders of the Tamil political parties - TULF, TELO, PLOTE, EPRLF and the ITAK - to bring about a settlement to this longstanding problem of registering the TNA, but gave up after deliberating at length after TULF leader V. Ananda Sangari stormed out of the meeting, the sources said. TNA parliamentarian, M. A. Sumanthiran told The Sunday Island that the Elections Act stipulated that any application for registering a party should be forwarded during the month of January each year and it could not be done if there was a pending election.

Thousands of people came together to take part in a rally through London, in remembrance of the hundreds of thousands of Tamil civilians who were killed, maimed and displaced by Sri Lankan forces in Mullivaikkal in May 2009. Leaving Marble Arch at 1pm, the crowd - from toddlers to octogenarians - braved the unseasonably cool May weather to walk to Waterloo Place, near Piccadilly Circus. With the generous co-operation of the Metropolitan Police, busy London thoroughfares such as Park Lane and Piccadilly were closed on a busy shopping day in order to let the procession pass.

The differences of opinion over the 13th Amendment to the Constitution among the constituent parties of the ruling United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) have come to the surface with Parliamentary Group Leader of the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) threatening to take to the streets, if the government goes ahead with the Northern Provincial Council elections scheduled for September this year. Speaking to a packed audience at the Public Library Auditorium yesterday, Parliamentarian Rathana Thera said his party would present a private member motion to abolish the 13th Amendment and the Provincial Council system. "If the government does not listen to us, and proceeds to conduct the election, we will be on the streets," he warned to an appreciative audience.

Norway has asked Sri Lanka to comply with "well established international rules on diplomatic immunity" after a Colombo Court ruled that the former Norwegian Ambassador and three officials did not have immunity in a huge transaction involving an NGO. Norway's Ambassador Grete Lochen said yesterday that her government had held the position that the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations should be respected since Sri Lanka was a party to this convention. "Diplomats and state officials from Sri Lanka are enjoying the same privileges when serving their government," she said in an email interview. The ambassador said the Norwegian embassy was carefully studying the translation of the Colombo District Court order in which four Norwegian nationals including the country's former Ambassador Hilde Haraldstad were being held accountable for the non-fulfillment of a financial transaction with a local NGO.

Sri Lanka's Army Commander Lieutenant General Jagath Jayasuriya criticized the foreign representatives expressing different opinions about maintaining army camps in the North. Participating in a radio program on the state-run SLBC, the Army Commander noted that there are only three Army camps in the Jaffna peninsula at present, although there were sixteen army camps at the end of the war in May 2009. He told the state run radio that, as the Army Commander he is well aware of what has to be done to safeguard the independence gained by defeating the terrorism. "Foreigners have no right to decide where the army camps of this country should be maintained," he said during the program.

The body of the Navy sailor who went missing following the capsizing of a Navy boat at the Galle Face on Saturday during the victory day parade was found from Bambalapitiya this morning. Four navy personnel had fallen off a small Sri Lanka Navy vessel which had been involved in an accident during the Victory day Parade but three sailors were rescued yesterday at sea.

It is reported that the SLFP has decided to hand over the operational leadership of the future elections in the party to Minister Basil Rajapaksa. The powers have been vested upon the National Organizer of the Party. However, internal party sources say that most of the powers which MP Maithripala Sirisena had enjoyed as the Party secretary has now been given to Minister Basil Rajapaksa. Sources say that this has triggered an internal dispute among its members. Previously, Party secretary had the power to call upon meetings an d to give direct orders to seat organizers. BUt the new decision has releived all these powers from the Secretary.

Election monitors are concerned about the possible strong military presence in the North if elections are held in September. Executive Director of CaFFE, Keerthi Tennakoon said that the political environment, the political freedom, the freedom of press and freedom of movement in the North needs to be addressed before the elections take place. 'There are still restrictions in those areas that could hamper the movement of people engaged in election campaigning. The freedom of assembly on the other hand is always a question mark, because in Mullaitivu, Jaffna and even in Kilinochchi we see that if there are a group of people gathered, there are so many questions being asked by the security forces.

Having consulted External Affairs Minister Prof. G. L. Peiris yesterday afternoon, Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa told The Sunday Island that contrary to media reports, acquiring land by the government for the expansion of Palaly-Kankesanthurai security zone hadn't been raised by Indian Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid when he phoned his Sri Lankan counterpart on Friday morning. Rajapaksa said that positioning of armed forces during the war as well as post-conflict situation would be the prerogative of the government. The deployment of troops and military assets would be done in accordance with overall post-war security plan hence it couldn't be amended owing to domestic as well as external factors.

The Saudi Arabian government Kingdom has offered a grace period for the overstaying Sri Lankan migrant workers, Sri Lankan embassy of Riyadh said. The grace period is valid from today and the overstaying Sri Lankans can leave the Kingdom under an amnesty. The Embassy asks the overstaying Sri Lankans to report to the Saudi Immigration and Emigration Department to obtain pass to leave the country without being punished. Unconfirmed sources say that around 10,000 Sri Lankans are staying in the Kingdom without valid visa or authorization.