his brother Gotabhaya Rajapaksa about the attempts surrender. Fonseka claimed that Gotabhaya Rajapaksa ordered Brigadier Shavendra Silva, commander of the Sri Lankan Army's 58 Division, not to allow the Tamil Tiger leaders to surrender and directed that "they must all be killed". Two Tamil Tiger leaders, Balasingham Nadesan and Seevaratnam Pulidevan, contacted Norwegian minister Erik Solheim and The Sunday Times journalist Marie Colvin and stated that they wanted to surrender. Solheim informed the Red Cross in Colombo who in turn informed the Sri Lankan government. Fonseka claimed that the Rajapaksa brothers, via foreign governments, told the Tamil Tigers leaders to "Get a piece of white cloth, put up your hands and walk towards the other side in a non-threatening manner". Fonseka claimed that on the night of 17/18 May 2009 Nadesan, Pulidevan, Ramesh and their families were all shot dead by the Sri Lankan Army as they tried to surrender. There was uproar in Sri Lanka when the "Sunday Leader" article was published. The government's Human Rights Minister, Mahinda Samarasinghe, said General Fonseka's statements were lies that had damaged the image of the country, and characterised them as the biggest betrayal of its kind in Sri Lanka's history. As an apparent consequence of the "Sunday Leader" article, and just twelve days after his evident defeat in the Sri Lankan presidential election, General Fonseka was arrested by military forces on 8 February 2010. The military based the arrest, it said, on allegations of "committing military offences", but it offered no details. The director general of the government's Media Centre for National Security told state TV that Fonseka will be tried by a military tribunal. His ongoing detention was subsequently attributed to civil and criminal charges including inciting the public against the government. During the previous month's run-up to the presidential election, Fonseka and his aides had moved into a luxurious Colombo hotel on 26 January 2010, election day. According to Time magazine, "The hotel was soon surrounded by military. Fonseka complained that there was a threat to his life and that the government was limiting his movements. Authorities claimed that security had been increased around the hotel as a precaution, although several former military officers working on the Fonseka campaign were arrested as they left the hotel." On 12 May 2010, after three months in military custody, the general said, according to the BBC, that the "Sunday Leader" newspaper had misquoted