Time

By Amantha Perera / Colombo
Monday, Nov. 02, 2009

Responding to previous international criticism, the Sri Lankan government declared that it would not subject any of its military commanders or civilian officials who led the war to any kind of international investigation or war-crimes tribunal. The apparent request from American officials led to a similar dismissal. In the U.S., the DHS`s office of Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE), which reportedly made the Fonseka request, refused to confirm or deny the allegation. ICE spokesman Brandon Alvarez-Montgomery said: `If there was an investigation, there`s nothing we can provide. Especially in cases that are very sensitive under human-rights violations, until that person or group were fully investigated [we] would never comment.`

The report of the DHS interview request comes at a curious time in Sri Lankan politics. Fonseka has been the subject of speculation that he may run against President Rajapaksa in the next election. Some political observers claim that the Rajapaksa brothers are trying to sideline the general, an allegation that the Defense Secretary has denied. `This is nothing but a despicable plot being hatched at the expense of the entire country,` Defense Secretary Rajapaksa told a weekend newspaper amid reports of a growing gulf between Fonseka and the government.

But on Oct. 26, Fonseka seemed to have veered away from a hard-line stance he shared with the Rajapaksas. At a Buddhist temple in Washington, he spoke of the `need to resettle persons who are in camps and provide security to them.` That appears to be a softening of his previous position that the peace-and-order climate in the areas reconquered by the military should not be undermined by speedy resettlement. Sri Lanka has an estimated 186,000 internally displaced people, refugees from the war with the Tigers. He warned that there might still be thousands of Tigers among them and that they needed to be weeded out. He said nothing about his alleged presidential ambitions, only that `the people who really know the victory are those who went to battle.`

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Daya Gamage US National Correspondent Asian Tribune
Washington, D.C. 03 November (Asiantribune.com):

The invitation by the Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Unit of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement attached to the United States Department of Homeland Security for a `voluntary interview` to Sri Lanka`s Chief of Defense Staff General Fonseka is directly connected to his legal status in the U.S. and the federal laws that governs resident aliens and naturalized citizens, the Asian Tribune understands following several inquiries.

As the State Department plays no role in `interviewing` or `interrogating` General Fonseka as the federal laws do not allow which is why the special unit of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) called by the most impressive title to handle this type of issues Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Unit was called in by the U.S. decision makers, possibly the hierarchy of the US State Department, to exert its legal authority on Fonseka.

Following the establishment of ICE in early 2003, the Office of Investigations formed a stand-alone unit to manage the national activities of the new agency in this particularly specialized law enforcement discipline. This unit is the Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Unit. The unit`s mission is twofold. The first part is to prevent the admission of foreign war crimes suspects, persecutors and human rights abusers into the United States. The second part is to identify, prosecute and ultimately remove such offenders who are already unlawfully in the United States and who have committed acts ranging from genocide, torture and war crimes to serious violations of religious freedoms or other forms of persecution. In performing both missions, DHS works closely with its counterpart Human Rights Law Division (HRLD).

How could the DHS have `jurisdiction over the actual foreign offenses`? Fonseka has been awarded the status of a resident alien by the DHS, and his family resides in the U.S. with moveable and immovable assets. The Fonseka family has already established some roots in the U.S. for General Fonseka to come under the legal jurisdiction of the DHS.

Further, where substantial monetary assets based on an offender`s human rights abuses or war crimes are identified in the jurisdiction of the Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Unit, ICE seeks to use its authorities to undertake the seizure of such assets.

Based on the findings of the Unit which was instrumental in inviting General Fonseka for a `voluntary interview` the ICE uses its authority under U.S. immigration law in order to undertake the arrest, detention, and ultimate removal or deportation of these individuals to their respective home countries, so that they may face justice before their victims.

Fonseka is capable of facing the above situation.

The DHS has the legal authority to bring pressure and even coercion on persons like General Sarath Fonseka to submit to the `grand design` of the State Department to target Sri Lanka`s defense secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa who is a citizen of the U.S.

Whether Fonseka is prepared to succumbed to the coercion and pressure the time will tell. But the legal framework the DHS possesses is sufficient for the Green Card Holder General Fonseka who has substantial interests in the United States to re-think and evaluate what steps he needs to take to protect his interests or balance his interests and that of the nation he served to eradicate the menace of LTTE terrorism.

Generally, these experienced interrogators offer to absolve someone who is prepared to provide even privileged information to implicate another who is the prime target of the prosecution.