Sri Lanka on Thursday appointed as a cabinet minister its first five-star field marshal and the former army general who led the military to victory in a 26-year war against Tamil Tiger separatists.
Sarath Fonseka, the leader of the Democratic Party, lost the August parliamentary poll, but entered parliament following a nomination this month by the ruling United National Party of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.
Fonseka was sworn in as minister of regional development at a time when supporters of former leader Mahinda Rajapaksa accuse the government of investigating the military over war crimes at the demand of the West and the United Nations.
Rajapaksa refused to investigate any alleged war crimes in the final phase of the conflict that ended in May 2009.
