Further evidence of the authoritarianism of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa's regime came with the February 8 arrest of former general Sarath Fonseka, who had stood against Rajapaksa in the January 26 presidential elections.
The government has announced Fonseka will be tried by court martial for "military offences", despite no longer being a serving officer.
Rajapaksa has followed the vote, in which he scored 58%, with a crackdown against political opponents and critical media.
A February 11 statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission said: "In recent weeks the government of Sri Lanka has engaged in alarming attempts to repress the avenues of the political participation of the opposition and the entire population in general…
"New regulations are published in gazettes about expanding the detention facilities in military camps and other places with the view to hold large numbers of detainees.
"This is perceived as a preparation for the large-scale arrest of opposition leaders and supporters during the period of the parliamentary elections.
"A large number of opposition supporters during the last presidential election are being detained under emergency and public security laws and are deprived of the protection available under the normal legal procedures in Sri Lanka ...
"One journalist has disappeared, another editor is detained under national security laws, the media is threatened and the police fail to conduct inquiries into allegations of these harassments."
Widespread human rights violations characterised Sri Lanka's 25-year war against the Tamil independence movement, led by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. These increased during the January-May 2009 offensive that finally defeated the LTTE, during which as many as 30,000 civilians were killed.
Fonseka was head of the Sri Lankan Army at the time, prosecuting the war on behalf of the Rajapaksa regime. In the presidential campaign both Rajapaksa and Fonseka campaigned on their role in the brutal war on Tamils.
After the war, 300,000 Tamil civilians were herded into concentration camps. Abuses against detainees, such as murder, rape, torture, disappearances and denial of food and medical facilities, have been widely alleged.
Most of the imprisoned Tamils remain in the camps, despite government claims to the contrary.
Fonseka was arrested at a meeting with other opposition leaders: Rauf Hakim, of the Sri Lankan Muslim Congress, and Mano Ganesan, of the Democratic People's Front.
Fonseka's presidential campaign spokesman, Mangala Samaraweera, told the February 9 British Daily Telegraph those arrested were violently assaulted by the military.
Before his arrest, Fonseka told journalists he would give evidence to international courts about war crimes committed by government forces during and after the 2009 assault against the LTTE, the BBC said on February 8.
Fonseka said: "I am definitely going to reveal what I know … Anyone who has committed war crimes should definitely be brought into courts."