Sirisena and Fonseka blame each other for security lapses

By Saman Indrajith

Ex-President Maithripala Sirisena and ex-Army Commander Field Marshal Sarath Fonskea had a heated argument in Parliament yesterday over national security lapses that had led to the Easter Sunday terror attacks.

Field Marshal Fonseka said Sirisena had no sense of national security and that had led to the Easter Sunday terror attacks.

“Even after the attacks, Sirisena, who was in Singapore, did not return to the country in the first flight available. There were two flights from Singapore, one at 12 noon and the other at 9 pm on that day. First class seats were not available in them and Sirisena waited till 1 am the following day to return home. He had no sense of urgency to attend to the national crisis here. Now, he is going with a till in Pettah to collect money to pay compensation to the victims,” Fonseka said.

Former President Sirisena said Fonseka was an ungrateful man to accuse him of security lapses. “If anyone collects money with a till at Pettah, I am willing to take that contribution because I have no money. Fonseka is an ungrateful man. It is I who gave him a presidential pardon while he was languishing in jail. He came after me asking for the field marshal post. The basic requirement to make a field marshal in a country is the strength of the army of that country. It needs more than one million troops to create the field marshal post. We did not have it. So, we made recruitments to enable the creation of that post. In the past several days he has been calling to put me behind bars. He says that I have no qualifications to talk about national security. What qualifications does he have to talk about national security? He was not even able to maintain security at the Army Headquarters when he was the commander of the army. A female suicide cadre went into the army headquarters and blew herself up injuring Fonseka seriously. The one who could not maintain security now talks about national security. Even the Supreme Court has accepted the fact that I have not been informed by any officer of the impending attacks while they had received prior warnings. It is unfair to criticise me. I destroyed the Zahran group within three weeks of the attacks.

Field Marshal Fonseka:

Sirisena did not give me pardon or promotion because he personally favoured me. It was there in the manifesto of his presidential election. That manifesto promised to give justice to me. People endorsed it. He was carrying out only an election promise when he gave the presidential pardon and the promotion. I had made speeches in hundreds of his rallies in support of him. He later removed my ministerial post because I criticized him. The attack on the army headquarters was because of the lapse of security measures following the Ceasefire Agreement. During a ceasefire we scaled down security. He does not understand security concepts.

Sirisena:

Fonseka says that the field marshal post was given to him as an election promise. He visited me many times begging to get that post. I finally made him the field marshal. Fonseka is not a man who knows what language he should use in Parliament. I regret hearing these things.”