The political fallout from January's presidential elections in Sri Lanka continued on Tuesday with the arrest of presidential candidate General Sarath Fonseka.

He's been accused of trying to overthrow the government and assassinate newly re-elected President Mahinda Rajapakse.

General Fonseka was detained at his office on Monday evening and taken away by government soldiers.

Listen to a Newsline interview with Sri Lankan journalist Iqbar Athas:

Military offences
A military government spokesman said the former general was detained for “military offences”, such as meeting with opposition leaders whilst still in uniform, although General Fonseka retired late last year.
 
General Fonseka lost last month's elections to his former ally, Mr Rajapakse. Last May, they joined forces to mastermind the final military blow to the Tamil Tigers, which ended the decades-long civil war in the northeast of the country.
 
But relations between the two soured in the run-up to January's elections, when General Fonseka announced he would challenge Mr Rajapakse’s presidency.
 
Violence
The rivalry between the two candidates led to widespread violence before and after election day. The two sides are still hurling accusations at each other, says Sri Lankan writer Iqbal Athas of Jane’s Defence Weekly.
 
“On election night, General Fonseka went public with the allegation that the government was planning to arrest and to assassinate him”, Mr Athas told Radio Netherlands Worldwide. “So General Fonseka and other opposition groups decided to pull their security personnel together so they could defend themselves to any possible arrest. Apparently, the government saw this as a provocation”.
 
Demotion
Another reason for the rift between Mr Fonseka and President Rajapakse, says Mr Aqbas, was General Fonseka’s apparent demotion at the end of last year. “After the Tigers were defeated, General Fonseka was forced to retire from the post of commander of the army and was appointed to a less powerful position. The Rajapakse family, which holds important positions in the cabinet, felt the general was becoming too powerful and they even thought General Fonseka was planning a coup”.
 
Mr Aqbas says the rift shows that the security and political situation in Sri Lanka is far from stable, despite the definitive blow against the Tamil Tigers nine months ago. “Here you have an army general who was hailed as a true patriot and who is the most decorated soldier. But now, the same government who decorated him, is accusing him of being a traitor”.
 
Unlimited investments
“There was going to be a climate for unlimited economic investments, tourism and development”, Mr Aqbas says. “But the latest developments don’t do these investments much good, naturally”.
 
Without investor confidence, which in turn could see tourism drop, Sri Lanka as a whole could suffer most from this rivalry. “It’s the economy that gets most affected rather than one individual”, Mr Aqbas says.