Sri Lanka: Sarath Fonseka, ex-army commander, granted bail

Sarath Fonseka, Sri Lanka’s former army chief who led the army to victory over Tamil Tiger rebels in 2009, has been granted bail and may receive a full pardon.

The news came as Sri Lanka marked the third anniversary of the rebels' defeat.

Fonseka — whom the US has designated a political prisoner — was detained in February 2010 after contesting the presidential election.

Sri Lanka’s High Court set Fonseka’s bail at $8,000 in a case where he is accused of harboring army deserters, the Associated Press reported. Fonseka was also asked to surrender his passport, his attorney said.

Mrs Fonseka was quoted by several news outlets as saying she'd been given the news by President Mahinda Rajapaksa, whom her husband challenged, after meeting him for two hours on Wednesday.

Meantime, Rajapakse on Saturday rejected international calls to withdraw troops from the island's former war zone.

Agence France-Presse cited Rajapakse as saying in a televised speech to the nation that he could not dismantle military camps in the north because it would undermine national security.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hours earlier had told Sri Lankan Foreign Minister G. L. Peiris in Washington that Colombo should de-militarize the former war zones and do more to protect human rights.

More from GlobalPost: Sri Lanka claims huge explosives discovery

"The Diaspora has not stopped their activities," Rajapakse said, referring to Tamil separatists abroad. "It is no secret that LTTE [Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam] leaders are freely operating abroad.

"Some are shouting 'remove camps, remove camps.' [But] these camps are not in another country. We have troops elsewhere in the country as well."  

Rajapakse, under international pressure to investigate allegations of war crimes, made it clear he would not bow to international demands.

"As a member of the United Nations we sit as equals with other nations. We have friendly relations with all nations and we have the strength to solve our own problems," he said.

"We have just begun to raise our heads… We have not forgotten the help neighboring nations and the international community extended us to defeat terrorism. Now we expect them to help us in our accelerated development."

More from GlobalPost: India gives Sri Lanka lessons in realpolitik