Sri Lanka’s president cracks down on opponents once more

NOT content with trouncing his main opponent, General Sarath Fonseka, in Sri Lanka’s presidential election last month, President Mahinda Rajapaksa has had him arrested. General Fonseka was nabbed—brutishly, by over 100 soldiers, according to his supporters—on Monday February 8th. Officials say he will be charged in a court martial with conspiring to topple the government.

He was accused shortly after he lost an acrimonious election on January 26th of plotting to assassinate Mr Rajapaksa and seize power. That heralded a purge in the army that General Fonseka led until recently, with 14 senior officers retired and around 40 serving and former soldiers arrested. But the government has given no details of General Fonseka’s alleged plot, which it says he hatched while still in uniform. A statement released by the defence ministry explained that the general had been detained “in connection with condemnation [sic] acts and other military offences”. A government spokesman also suggested that General Fonseka’s crime was in fact to have got involved in politics while still in uniform. …