SRI LANKAN WHO LED FIGHT AGAINST TAMILS SEEKS PRESIDENCY
Sarath Fonseka
Gen. Sarath Fonseka retired from the army in mid-November after months of tension with Rajapaksa  who has staked his re-election campaign on the resounding military victory over the Tamil Tiger insurgency in May.
 Fonseka led a tough counterinsurgency strategy that took small teams of fighters deep into the jungles of northern Sri Lanka  striking a mortal blow to a rebel army that had battled the government for more than two decades.
 "We have done away with the terrorists " Fonseka told reporters at a news conference on Sunday. "But now you can't leave the country in the hands of a tin-pot dictator."
 After the war was won  Rajapaksa moved Fonseka into a largely ceremonial post  and the uneasy alliance between the two men crumbled. A coalition of nationalist and left-wing opposition parties named Fonseka as its candidate to face Rajapaksa.
 In his resignation letter  Fonseka criticized what he described as "appalling conditions" at the camps. He promised to shift to Parliament much of the power that comes with the office of the president. He also accused Rajapaksa of failing to bring Sri Lanka together after the long and bloody war with the Tamil Tigers.
 Still  many of Sri Lanka's Tamils and other minorities remain skeptical of Fonseka because of his role in prosecuting the war and his strong alliance with the nationalists from the ethnic-Sinhalese majority.
[TGT] retired from the army in mid-November after months of tension with Rajapaksa  who has staked [TGT] re-election campaign on the resounding military victory over the Tamil Tiger insurgency in May.
 Fonseka led a tough counterinsurgency strategy that took small teams of fighters deep into the jungles of northern Sri Lanka  striking a mortal blow to a rebel army that had battled the government for more than two decades.
 "We have done away with the terrorists [TGT] told reporters at a news conference on Sunday. "But now you can't leave the country in the hands of a tin-pot dictator."
 After the war was won  Rajapaksa moved [TGT] into a largely ceremonial post  and the uneasy alliance between the two men crumbled. A coalition of nationalist and left-wing opposition parties named [TGT] as its candidate to face Rajapaksa.
 In his resignation letter  [TGT] criticized what he described as "appalling conditions" at the camps. He promised to shift to Parliament much of the power that comes with the office of the president. He also accused Rajapaksa of failing to bring Sri Lanka together after the long and bloody war with the Tamil Tigers.
 Still  many of Sri Lanka's Tamils and other minorities remain skeptical of [TGT] because of [TGT] role in prosecuting the war and [TGT] strong alliance with the nationalists from the ethnic-Sinhalese majority.