Was reading the derana news article on the approval of imprisonment by HE on SF.....found a good long comment on it n thought of shearing it...here goes...
September 30, 2010 10:44 am
Oh ! Prison... it´s a pity. It isn’t a place favorable for you sir. But there are people stays in peace than the outside. In year 2008 I was sent into the prison because of deserting the Army (leaving the job as a military doctor. I left the military during Ranil-Prabha peace pact time in 2003. I willingly joined military in 1996 just after my medical degree, merely to serve the soldiers. I served for 7 difficult years treating soldiers in various operational areas, mostly during Jayasikuru operation and several debacles such as Kilinochchi, EPS etc. ) I was astonished the worst sentence given by the military, but convinced myself as I breached military regulations. I didn´t develop any personal hatred against General Fonseka who personally took my case into consideration and willingly put me in civilian jail for more than 3 months. All my siblings and friends started cursing General Fonseka giving me such an awful punishment. Yet, I thought it in a different angle. He really did his job and no favors. This was 2008 when he was leading our army against LTTE rascals. I continued to respect him during the time of imprisonment as he was doing a great job for my country. Still, he is a real son of mother Lanka. Nobody can destroy that image even though he was sent to the prison. Unfortunately he sent me to Civilian Jail where I met underworld gangs, thieves, murderers, robbers, rapists etc. I was thinking that why they didn´t sent me to a military prison. Now I feel it was better that they sent me over there. People in the prison are a mirror image of the civilian society. They started taking care of me. As a matter of fact, most of the high-fi fellows sentenced to the prison never enter into prison wards but get treatments in the prison hospital. This is the reality. I never tried to use my connections and influences towards that destination if I had any. People who were in the prison never purposely ill-treated me though there were some painful incidents. Some found paper articles written about me during the battle time, working as a military doctor. At the end of the period I really felt bad to leave the place. Wlikada prison is a disgusting place. I never hope a person must go there, it is a real mess. There are lots and lots of irregularities being done by gangs inside. But the place I was sent secondarily, Padukka- open prison was a great relief for me. I set my mind to "go through every second of my time POSITIVELY”. It´s so unfortunate, that I met lots of military personal imprisoned for several years because of Desertion. Some deserters were forced to take the decision due to family matters, personal illnesses etc. There had been no imprisonments for some military men who did the same offense and no even a court-marshal for commanders who cowardly withdrew some of the big military camps killing hundreds of officers and thousands of soldiers. And no court cases for some ex-ministers who were involved in corruptions. There was a time that the government did operations to win elections. Just to recover 1km area Army had to sacrifice hundreds of casualties. I am not here to support HE the president for his decision. But it’s very apparent that the decision is biased. Honestly, General Fonseka’s extraordinary personality and psychology boomeranged into himself. He was a brilliant military man. But as a human being, he would not score much marks from people who have closely worked with him. He is a real rude person. Of course that’s the very reason he led the army such a remarkable way to neutralize the enemies. A priest cannot do that. Nevertheless, it is not an unknown thing there were several staff absentees during his stay in military hospital after experiencing injuries of the blast in Army HQ because of his cruelty. "If" general fonseka did breach the law, he deserves the punishment. But there must be more transparency on the issue as he was one of the key members led our national forces to eradicate LTTE terrorism. His name must have written in golden letters. But he himself shares the responsibility for the disaster what happened to him today.
Dr. Kolitha Lelwala
