Government to take action against General Fonseka

Anbarasan Ethirajan - The Sri Lankan defence secretary, Gotabaya Rajapaksa says that the government is considering taking action against the opposition presidential candidate and former army chief General Sarath Fonseka for allegedly divulging sensitive information to the public.

His comments came just a day after the incumbent Mahinda Rajapaksa was announced the winner of the presidential elections.

The defence secretary said he was angry with his former colleague in the army for speaking out in public.

He said General Fonseka was wrong to suggest in a newspaper interview that the defence secretary had ordered the killings of senior Tamil rebels as they tried to surrender in the final stages of the conflict last May.

General Fonseka later retracted his statement.

He said his words were taken out of context. But in his BBC interview, Mr Rajapaksa said the retraction was not enough.

"He had done many mistakes," said Mr. Rajapaksa.

"He accused me of saying that I gave wrong orders. It came out in the newspapers. So taking action later on we will follow the procedures."

The defence secretary said that Gen. Fonseka will not be arrested "because he was the opposition candidate."

LTTE key suspect 'arrested'

There's been no immediate response from General Fonseka, who maintains that he won the presidential election and that he will be appealing against the verdict.

In his interview, the defence secretary also said they'd arrested the second in command of the Tamil Tiger organisation's overseas operations.

He said the suspect, known as Rajan (alias Subramaniam Sivakumar) had been arrested in a south east asian nation and brought to Colombo on Thursday.

The information regarding the suspect, he said, came from the Tamil Tiger leader, Selvarasa Pathmanathan, who is under arrest in Colombo. Mr Pathmanathan was arrested last August.

© BBC Sinhala