WikiLeaks:Fonseka Did Discuss The “White Flags Story” with US

Two New Witnesses Claim They Independently Saw “The White Flag Incident”

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WikiLeaks:Fonseka Did Discuss The “White Flags Story” with US

By Colombo Telegraph -October 10, 2011

Fonseka- did not know the flurry of phone calls

A classified US diplomatic cable under the name of Patricia A. Butenis, the US ambassador to Colombo shows, the Presidential candidate General Sarath Fonseka stood by the controversial “white Flag” story published by the Sunday Leader.

The cable written on December 14, 2009 at 13.50pm by the ambassador Butenis and classified as “Confidential” recount the details of a lunch meeting she had with UNP deputy leader Karu Jayasuriya and Sarath Fonseka on December 14, 2009.

“After Fonseka arrived, the former general discussed his interview in the Sunday Leader news paper on December 13, in which he had accused Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa of ordering at the end of the war the shooting of any LTTE leaders who might try to surrender under flags of truce.” she wrote to Washington. The ambassador further wrote “Fonseka claimed he did not know until two days later about the flurry of phone calls between Gotabhaya, the Norwegian ambassador, and the LTTE leadership regarding surrender and said he had been told details by journalists. Nevertheless, he said he took full responsibility for the actions of the men in uniform.” The Colombo Telegraph publishes the full cable below.

The editor Sunday Leader Frederica Jansz was given an interview by Fonseka and it was published under the name title of “Gota Ordered Them to Be Shot” – Genaral Sarath Fonseka” on December 13, 2009. Read the story here

After the story broke, the government began to portray Fonseka’s allegation as an act of treachery. The story of the massacre was irrelevant. What mattered was that by speaking out Fonseka was betraying Gotabaya, the army and the country.

Frederica Jansz - subjected to smear campaigns

A government backed campaign to publicise particularly in Sinhala, a distorted version of the story, and present the General as a traitor. The objective behind the campaign was to convince the General that his accusations were eroding his popularity and to force him to back down in the interest of winning more votes. This campaign began immediately after the newspaper went on sale with radio shows denouncing the story as an act of treachery by early Sunday morning.

It was only as the government’s denunciation campaign intensified with TV, radio, and internet sites declaring the former war hero a traitor that Fonseka’s advisors Mangala Samaraweera, Anura Kumara Dissanayake and Vijitha Herath in particular advised him to retract part of the story.

At a meeting with the Chairman of The Sunday Leader, Lal Wickrematunge on Monday, December 14, senior UNP leaders together with Samaraweera and the JVP insisted that a retraction was necessary as the story had damaged Fonseka’s reputation as a patriot.

Read Frederica Jansz’s strory here

Read the full US embassy cable below; Read More