WRAP Human Rights Minister, Rajapaksa, Fonseka; Rajapaksa presser

(27 Jan 2010) SHOTLIST
1. Re-elected Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa speaking to reporters UPSOUND (English) Mahinda Rajapaksa, Sri Lankan President:
(Q) How are you feeling sir?
"Big relief, big relief"
2. Rajapaksa receiving blessings from Buddhist monks
3. Rajapaksa shaking hands with supporters
4. Wide of General Sarath Fonseka in news conference ++MUTE++
5. SOUNDBITE (English) General Sarath Fonseka, Defeated Presidential Candidate:
"The franchise of the people has not been interpreted properly, has been distorted. The result what has been given out - the ultimate result of the election, which was held yesterday, the presidential election - we are not accepting that."
6. Cutaway of media
7. SOUNDBITE (English) General Sarath Fonseka, Defeated Presidential Candidate:
"So this is an exercise which is aimed at assassinating me. All the evidence are pointing towards that. They are first reducing my weak security. Now they are brought this place under siege, now they will try do something, use the force, and try to assassinate me and put the blame on somebody else."
8. Wide of news conference
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Mahinda Samara, Sri Lanka''s Minister for Human Rights:
"As of now, candidate Fonseka is free to go anywhere he wants to. He''s not under house arrest, he can move out of the hotel anytime that he wants to. In fact, what was pointed out a little while ago, it was he who took the decision to move into this hotel, and occupy two floors of the Cinnamon Lakeside Hotel, and he''s been staying there since checking in yesterday."
10. Rajapaksa sitting down for news conference
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Mahinda Rajapaksa, Sri Lankan President:
"We have to look after everybody''s life. Whether it is, I mean, we know what has happened in you know, after the, just after elections. Maybe lot of things that might happen. And so we, and they, have invited people to come in to Sri Lanka, come to Colombo. I mean, why don''t you go through all these suspicious? Why don''t you do that? Please. Why don''t you speak to our foreign minister? Or some ministers here. They''ll explain to you."
(Q: So are you doing this to protect him?)
"We have to protect everybody. Not only Fonseka. I mean, the whole, that hotel has to be protected, if something happens to that hotel."
12. Cutaway of journalists
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Mahinda Rajapaksa, Sri Lankan President:
"Six (m) million people voted for me so I have to - not only those people but even the people who had voted for others, other candidates - I have to look after their interests. I have to look after their security. First security and well being. And we will, I have invited all of them to join with me to develop this country."
14. Various of people dancing in the streets and giving out sweets in celebration
STORYLINE
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa swept to a second term in office on Wednesday, but his chief rival vowed to challenge the results and for hours insisted he was being held a virtual prisoner in a hotel surrounded by hundreds of soldiers.
Rajapaksa tried to brush off the election dispute, calling on Sri Lankans to unite for the tough task of rebuilding a nation shattered by a generation of ethnic warfare.
He will now have to face Sri Lankans'' growing anxiety over the country''s economic stagnation, and he will be expected to tackle the tensions between his Sinhalese majority and the Tamil minority that fuelled the nation''s 25-year civil war.
What had been expected to be a tight election between two architects of the government''s victory over the Tamil Tiger rebels last year turned into a rout.
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