Former Army Commander Gen. Sarath Fonseka Tuesday night strongly disputed allegations that LTTE leader Prabhakaran’s 12-year-ild son, Balachandran, had been in the custody of the Sri Lankan Army during the final phase of the conflict.

The former Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) insisted that the boy shown in the pictures, released by the British media outfit Channel 4 recently, was wearing an Indian sarong and the person in camouflage uniform couldn’t be a Sri Lankan soldier as that particular type of camouflage uniform wasn’t used by the Sri Lankan Army.

The leader of the Democratic Party was responding to a query by a member of the Colombo based Foreign Correspondents Club during a meeting at Galle Face.

The Democratic Party leader’s spokesperson Sanjeeva Samarasinghe quoted the former Army Chief as having said that the pictures could have been doctored.

The Channel 4 television network last month released new photographs of, what they called, Balachandran inside an army bunker having a snack and another frame which showed his bullet riddled body. The Global Tamil Forum (GTF) reiterated its call for an international war crime investigation in the wake of what he called new evidence.

"The bunker where the boy was seated couldn’t have been one of ours in the battle field. It looked so tidy and orderly and our troops didn’t have the luxury of having such bunkers," the Gen. Fonseka was quoted as having said.

The tough talking Sinha Regiment veteran said that he was ready to face an indepemdent international investigation as the former Army Chief.

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