Major General Janaka Perera – the next Chief Minister of North Central Province

United National Party today decided to appoint Major General Janaka Perera as its candidate for the post of Chief Minister in North Central Province. 

Major General Janaka Perera was the former Chief of Staff of the Sri Lanka Army and one of the most distinguished generals in Sri Lanka.

He was educated at St. Joseph’s College, Colombo and joined the Sri Lanka Army as an Officer Cadet and received his training at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in England. After completing his training he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Sri Lanka Light Infantry, later he transferred to the newly formed Commando Regiment. Maj Gen Pererea is a graduate of the Royal College of Defence Studies.

As a Colonel, Janaka Pererea took a major role suppressing the JVP insurrection of 1987-89. He was the Provincial Commander of the North-Western Province as well as being in charge of the special operations of the ‘Operation Combine’ in Colombo which led to the capture of the JVP leader Rohana Wijeweera.

In the following years he played a significant role in safeguarding the defence of Sri Lanka. His contribution for the Sri Lankan military effort during the Eelam War III was exceptional. Brigadier Pererea was one of the key players of the Operation Riviresa which lead to the liberation of the Jaffna peninsula. During the operation he commanded the 53 Division which consisted of the Independent Brigade, Air Mobile Brigade, Armoured Brigade and an Infantry Brigade. Later he was promoted to the post of Deputy Chief of Staff and also had functioned as Commandant, Sri Lanka Army Command and Staff College.

Unlike Gotabhaya Rajapakse, who abandoned and ran away from Army in the most difficult times, Major General Janaka Perera never abandoned the forces, in spite of the immense risk he and the family had to undertake for his military activities.

He once again distinguished himself after the fall Elephant Pass in 2000 which forced the SL Army units in Jaffna to fall back. Undertaking the Operation Kinihira after being appointed Commander Security Forces Jaffna, Major General Perera launched an effective counter attack that halted the LTTE advance and succeeded in established the current defense line in the Jaffna peninsula. This prevented the SL Army from being forced to evacuated from the Jaffna peninsula or due to the lack of transport ships, the prospect of being cut off.

Major General Janaka Perera was made Chief of Staff of the army in 2000 but retired in 2001. Following his retirement he was made Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner to Australia and later Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to Indonesia, but was recalled before his term ended.

Like most of the honorable military figures in Sri Lanka like Lieutenant General Denzil Kobbekaduwa and Former Air Force Chief Harry Gunatilake, Major General Janaka Perera is a firm believer of a political solution to ethnic issue and sees the military activities only to safeguard the country and a means for force LTTE to the negotiations.

Sirasa News First Reporter killed

What a country we live in.

Even before Keith Noyahr could recover from the shocks he had to undergo for being faithful to his profession, we hear another sad news. Sadder, in fact, but not sure it will rock the Southern society as Noyahr affair did.

Sirasa News First Jaffna reporter P. Devakumaran, 34, has been hacked to death this afternoon in Navthurei by ‘an unidentified gang’. He was travelling in a motor bike with a friend when he met his unfortunate event. His friend too has been killed in the same brutal manner. (Keith, thank God that you live in Dehiwala and not in Jaffna!)

No need to start pointing fingers. As the government constantly reminds us Jaffna is within the LIBERATED area. (And the credit for ‘liberating’ it goes to the former President Chandrika Kumaratunge and Anuruddha Ratwatte) So logically that area should be under the control of security forces and presumably free from LTTE. If LTTE could kill the way they like WITHIN THE LIBERATED AREA the control is really bad and they should not be liberated as the government claims.

A resident from Wadukottai Jaffna, Devekumaran has been serving Sirasa for the last three years.

I express my deepest sympathies to his family. It is sad that is all we could do. I guess his name too will enter the long list of journalists who faced similar fates under the current regime, without the culprits ever brought into justice.

True figures: Sri Lanka lost 185 soldiers in Jaffna battle - AFP quotes military sources

COLOMBO (AFP) — At least 165 government soldiers were killed and 20 more went missing in a major battle against Tamil rebels this week, military sources told AFP on Friday.

The figures were far higher than official defence ministry casualties which gave 43 soldiers dead and 33 missing from Wednesday’s fighting in the north.

“Some of the senior officers have been told that the army lost 185, including 20 who are still listed as missing,” said a military source who declined to be named. “We are trying to establish the fate of the missing.”

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on Thursday returned the bodies of 28 soldiers they had captured.

The government also reported killing more than 100 rebels in the pre-dawn offensive along the Muhamalai front lines on the northern Jaffna peninsula.

However, the separatists, who have been fighting for a Tamil homeland since 1972, said they lost only 25 combatants.

Official defence ministry casualty tolls and LTTE figures can seldom be verified because the government prevents journalists from visiting war zones and territory held by the rebels.

Wednesday’s confrontation was the bloodiest in recent years and the biggest battle since the military withdrew from a Norwegian-arranged truce in January this year.

(AFP)