National Freedom Front leader and onetime JVP Propaganda Secretary MP Wimal Weerawansa yesterday called upon his erstwhile comrades to be wary of their new- found friend retired general Sarath Fonseka.

MP Weerawansa said the incumbent JVP leadership must bear in mind how Fonseka worked hard and played a crucial role in crushing the JVP’s second insurrection in 1988-89 as the commanding officer of a military camp in Trincomalee.

Participating in the Emergency Debate, MP Weerawansa said the JVP should not forget its past because it would result in definite failure.

He said a certain JVP leader was arrested and was detained in the Kantale Army Camp that had been under the command of Fonseka. The JVP leader under interrogation had had given in the lists of names of fellow comrades and even had identified them for the insurgent’ units. Those ‘counter-insurgents’ had eliminated all of them and the leader who made the betrayal had saved his life.

Weerawansa said what Fonseka had uttered on political stage to attack his opponents had become the basis for the UN Secretary-General to call for afresh investigation against alleged war crimes in this country.

He said Fonseka was arrested under the provisions of the Army Act and such people could be detained in the special places separated from the usual remand prison. The way such detainees should be treated is decided by the Army and not civil Courts of law.

"But in this case, we know that all facilities had been provided to Fonseka and the opposition MPs are calling for better facilities, only to gain political mileage," Weerawansa said.