Arrested Sri Lankan opposition leader is treated 'like an animal'

The Muslim Congress leader Rauff Hakeem told Reuters news agency: "He was dragged away in a very disgraceful manner in front of our own eyes."

Mr Hakeem said the action was "authoritarian and vindictive".

Mr Rajapaksa won the election by 57% to 40%
A spokesman for the People's Liberation Front told Agence France-Presse: "The general refused to be taken away. They grabbed him and virtually carried him away after threatening the others. There must have been over 100 soldiers."

The politicians at the meeting said the military police had given no reasons as they made the arrest.

Mr Hakeem said Gen Fonseka had complained that because he was no longer in the military he should not have been arrested by military police.

Earlier in the day, Gen Fonseka had said he was prepared to give evidence in international courts on any war crimes charges brought in relation to the civil war.

"I am definitely going to reveal what I know, what I was told and what I heard. Anyone who has committed war crimes should definitely be brought into the courts," Gen Fonseka said.

The wife of General Sarath Fonseka, the former Sri Lankan army chief who was arrested last night on suspicion of plotting a coup, accused the Government today of abducting her husband and treating him "like an animal".

"This is not an arrest. It is an abduction," a tearful Anoma Fonseka told a news conference at her home in Colombo, the capital.

Mrs Fonseka complained that her 59-year-old husband had been "dragged out and treated like an animal" by the soldiers after he objected to being arrested by military rather than civilian police.

"We always knew that the Government will try to arrest my husband, but we never thought they would do it in such a disgusting manner," she said through sobs.

"Please help me. I need to know where he is so that I can at least give him his medicine. He has already missed last night's dose,” she said. “What I want to tell the Government is: 'Just be reasonable. Treat him like a human being.'"