Sri Lankans protest jailing of ex-army chief

Thousands of opposition activists marched on Tuesday demanding the release of Sri Lanka's former army chief, who was sentenced to a second jail term, this time for implicating the defence secretary in war crimes.

Supporters say former presidential candidate Sarath Fonseka is being victimised for his political allegiance. The demonstrators displayed placards that read "curse the rulers who put the general in the prison" and "let's defeat government's dictatorship."

"Is the government afraid of Fonseka and human rights? Today, Fonseka has become a symbol of political prisoners," Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe told the gathering.

Wickremesinghe accused the government of undermining democracy and rule of law and called on the people to safeguard them.

He said millions of people worldwide have come to the streets to protect their rights and that movement — from the Arab Spring uprisings to the Occupy Wall Street protests in the US — "should be brought to Sri Lanka too."

Fonseka is already serving a 30-month prison term after a court martial found him guilty of planning his political career while still in the military and of committing fraud in purchasing military ware.

He was sentenced last week to three more years in prison for breaching the country's harsh emergency laws. He said he was misquoted when a newspaper reported him saying Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakasa ordered the execution of Tamil Tigers attempting to surrender as the civil war was ending in May 2009.

Human rights groups have long accused the Sri Lankan government of committing war crimes in the final stages of the civil war. A UN panel reported in April tens of thousands of civilians may have been killed in the final months of the fighting and ethnic Tamil activists claim government troops executed unarmed rebels who surrendered.

The government rejected any wrongdoing for more than two years before conceding civilian deaths did occur. Gotabhaya Rajapaksa told a conference last week that the military may have committed "crimes" and promised to investigate them.