Gotabaya Rajapaksa

Nandasena Gotabaya Rajapaksa was born in Palatuwa in the Matara District, as the fifth of nine siblings, and was brought up in Weeraketiya in the southern rural district of Hambantota. He hails from a well-known political family in Sri Lanka. His father, D. A. Rajapaksa, was a prominent politician, independence agitator, Member of Parliament, Deputy Speaker and Cabinet Minister of Agriculture and Land in Wijeyananda Dahanayake's government. His elder brother, Mahinda Rajapaksa was first elected to parliament as a member of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party at the age of 24 in 1970, who gradually rose through the party ranks becoming the Leader of the Opposition in 2001, Prime Minister in 2004 and the President of Sri Lanka in 2005. Two of his other brothers, Chamal Rajapaksa and Basil Rajapaksa, are also current Members of Parliament. He obtained his primary and secondary education at Ananda College, Colombo.

Early career

Rajapaksa joined the Sri Lankan Army as a cadet officer on 26 April 1971, when Sri Lanka was still a dominion of the British Commonwealth and was in the midst of the 1971 JVP insurrection. Following his basic officer training at the Army Training Centre, Diyatalawa in its 4th intake, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant on 26 May 1972, in the Sri Lanka Signals Corps. Soon after he was sent for the signal young officers course at the Military College of Signals, Rawalpindi. On his return, he was assigned as the signals officer to the Task Force Anti Illicit Immigration, based at its headquarters in Palaly, under the command of Colonel Tissa Weeratunga. In April 1974, he was promoted to Lieutenant and in October he transferred to the Sri Lanka Sinha Regiment as an infantry officer. In April 1975, he attended the infantry young officers course at the School of Infantry and Tactics, Queta. Returning in June, he was assigned as the battalion intelligence officer at the Echelon Barracks in Colombo and was promoted to captain in April 1977. Following the change of government in the 1977 general election, he was transferred to the Army Training Centre, Diyatalawa as an officer instructor in August 1977. In January 1978, he was appointed Grade III Staff Officer of A branch, handling administration of the Diyatalawa Garrison. During this time he attended the senior staff and tactics course at the Panagoda Cantonment and took part in preparing a report on encroachment of state lands in the north and eastern provinces for the Defense Ministry. Thereafter in 1980, he joined the newly formed Rajarata Rifles as its adjutant under its first commanding officer Lieutenant Colonel V. K. Nanayakkara. Rajapaksa played a major role in establishing the regimental headquarters of the newly formed regiment at Saliyapura. That year he attended the Counter-Insurgency and Jungle Warfare School, Assam and in 1982 he was selected to attended the Command and Staff course at Defence Services Staff College in Wellington in India, gaining the psc qualification and a Master of Science in Defence and Strategic Studies from the University of Madras.

Gajaba Regiment

While Rajapaksa was at staff college in India, the Rajarata Rifles were amalgamated with the Vijayabahu Infantry Regiment and the Gajaba Regiment was formed. Having been transferred to the Gajaba Regiment, on his return to the island, he was appointed second-in-command of the 1st Battalion, Gajaba Regiment (1GR) under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Vijaya Wimalaratne, instead of the traditional staff appointment that followed the returning officer from staff college. Following retraining, the 1st Battalion was deployed to the Jaffna peninsula between 1983 and 1984 and again 1985 with the escalation of the Sri Lankan Civil War. During this time he commanded detachments of his battalion based in Jaffna and at Elephant Pass. In 1985 he led an ad hoc unit made up of new recruits that successfully ambushed a LTTE raiding party, for which he was awarded commendation from the President J.R. Jayewardene in the first combat award ceremony. He took part in Operation Liberation commanding the 1GR, the offensive mounted to liberate Vadamarachi from LTTE in 1987. In July 1987, the 1GR was transferred to Colombo and Rajapaksa assisted Colonel Wimalaratne in securing Colombo with the outset of the second JVP insurrection until his battalion was transferred to Trincomalee in October 1987. In December 1987, Rajapaksa appointed a Grade II Staff Officer at Army Headquarters in the training branch under Colonel C. H. Fernando, Director of Training. In 1988, he attended the advanced infantry officers course at the United States Army Infantry School, Fort Benning. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel while in course and returned to his staff appointment at Army Headquarters in January 1989. In July 1989, he was appointed commanding officer of the 1st Battalion, Gajaba Regiment. Soon after the 1GR was moved to Matale and Rajapaksa was appointment as the military coordinating officer of the Matale District at the height of the 1987–1989 JVP insurrection undertaking counter insurgency operations in the district and remained in that capacity until end of the insurrection in December 1989. During 1990, he commanded 1GR in Weli Oya, serving as the military coordinating officer for the Weli Oya sector under the command of Brigadier Janaka Perera and with 1 GR took part in the Operation "Strike Hard" and Operation Thrividha Balaya in Jaffna under the command of Major General Denzil Kobbekaduwa. In January 1991, he was appointed Deputy Commandant of the Sir John Kotelawala Defence Academy and held the position until his early retirement from the army on 1 November 1991.

Relationship with the media

Rajapaksa has been accused of threatening journalists on several occasions, including telling two journalists attached to the state-owned Lake House Publications that unless they stop criticising the armed forces "what will happen to you is beyond my control". When asked by the two journalists if he was threatening them, he replied "I am definitely not threatening your lives. Our services are appreciated by 99 per cent of the people. They love the Army Commander (General Sarath Fonseka) and the Army. There are Sri Lankan patriots who love us do and will do what is required if necessary." In April 2007 he was accused of allegedly calling the editor of the Daily Mirror Champika Liyanaarachchi and threatening her, saying that she would escape reprisals only if she resigned. He was also accused of threatening to "exterminate" the Daily Mirror journalist Uditha Jayasinghe for writing articles about the plight of civilian war casualties.

A 5 December 2008 story from The New York Times quoted his news reporting position as "he insists that journalists should not be allowed to report anything that demoralises the war effort".

In an editorial titled "A brother out of control" (16 August 2011), The Hindu raised the observation, "President Rajapaksa would be well advised to distance himself swiftly from his brother's stream-of-consciousness on sensitive issues that are not his business. This includes an outrageous comment that because a Tamil woman, an "LTTE cadre" who was a British national, interviewed in the Channel 4 documentary was "so attractive" but had been neither raped nor killed by Sri Lankan soldiers, the allegation of sexual assault by soldiers could not be true. For this statement alone, Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa must be taken to task."

In May 2015, The Sunday Leader tendered an unconditional apology to Gotabaya Rajapaksa for a series of articles regarding the purchase of MIG 27 airplanes for the Sri Lanka Air Force.

Criticism of the United Nations and western countries

In June 2007, Rajapaksa was severely critical of the United Nations (UN) and of western governments. He accused the UN of having been infiltrated by terrorists "for 30 years or so", and as a result the UN was fed incorrect information. He also alleged that Britain and the EU were bullying Sri Lanka, and concluded that Sri Lanka "does not need them", and that they don't provide any significant amount of aid to the country.

Legal dispute with Lasantha Wickrematunge

In August 2007, journalist Lasantha Wickrematunge published an exposé on a military contract involving the purchase of the Mikoyan MiG-27 Ukrainian Fighter Aircraft.

On 18 October 2007, attorney-at-law Ali Sabry and lawyers representing Rajapaksa wrote to Wickrematunge threatening to sue him for defamation for Rs. 2 billion (€14 million) in damages.

On 22 February 2008, Rajapaksa filed a lawsuit for defamation against Wickrematunge and Leader Publications, charging that the allegations made by Wickrematunge against Rajapaksa were defamatory. Rajapaksa asserted that his role of Defence Secretary "had been adversely affected due to Wickrematunge, creating adverse consequences to the war against the rebels in the battlefield."

On 5 December 2008, a judge ordered Leader Publications not to publish any reports about Gotabaya Rajapaksa, for two weeks.

Several weeks later, Wickrematunge was assassinated days before he was to testify and give evidence in court regarding the MiG deal. Wickrematunge's daughter has publicly held Rajapaksa responsible for the assassination. Rajapaksa denied any involvement in the killing and questioned the focus on Wickrematunge's death in a BBC interview shortly afterwards.