Will do utmost to safeguard country’s security

Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka yesterday scoffed at the notion that he decided to support UNF alliance’s presidential candidate Sajith Premadasa after he announced the decision to appoint him as the Minister of Defence and Law and Order in a future government.

Only I knew the tactics which we were going to follow. We would not have succeeded if military tactics were revealed to the political leadership

Field Marshal Fonseka told a news conference that all parties in the UNF met the day before the official naming of the candidate and decided that Mr. Premadasa should be the candidate and that he too decided to go on that line.

“I met Mr. Premadasa in the morning on the day he had a mass rally at Galle Face and he hinted that I will be given a responsible post in a government which he would form in the future. He made a clear statement at the rally,” Field Marshal Fonseka said.

He said he would do his utmost to safeguard the security in the country and see that modern terrorism would be defeated in two years.

He also pledged to eradicate drug trafficking.

He then explained the tactics he followed during the war.

“We decided to move systematically and never confronted the LTTE terrorists from four sides as claimed by the SLPP candidate Former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa. We focused on eliminating terrorists rather than gaining territorial ground. We did this as we realized that holding on to territorial grounds would be a difficult task without eliminating terrorists. Mr. Rajapaksa never had any idea on military tactics,” the former Army Commander said.

Field Marshal Fonseka added that the political leadership at the time the LTTE closed Mawil Aru did not have any idea on what should be done to get the gates opened.“i was in Singapore undergoing treatment after the attempt made on my life when I heard about the Mawil Aru drama. After being informed about it I rushed to Sri Lanka with the doctors’ consent and found that there was no sufficient number of men to fight the terrorists . I then got reinforcements and finally defeated the LTTE in the area. “Only I knew the tactics which we were going to follow. We would not have succeeded if military tactics were revealed to the political leadership,” he said.

“The SLPP candidate faced several issues during his career at the army as he was court martialled once but got himself cleared through the then state Minister of Defence Ranjan Wijeratne,” he said.