General A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air force, air and space forces, marines or naval infantry. In some usages, the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colone ...

Ranjan Wijeratne (4 April 1931 – 2 March 1991) was a

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

n planter and politician. He served in the Premadasa cabinet as

Minister of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and foreign relations, relations, diplomacy, bilateralism, ...

and then Minister of Plantation Industries, while holding the office of State Minister for Defence during the time.

Early life

Ranjan Wijeratne was born on 4 April 1931, the son of Walpola Mudalige George Hercules Wijeratne and Rosalind Maria née Senanayake a first cousin of D. S. Senanayake. He was educated at S. Thomas' College, Gurutalawa and S. Thomas' College, Mount Lavinia.

Plantation career

Wijeratne began his career as a planter having apprenticed under Carlyle De Kretser on Kehelwatte Estate Plantation in Lunugala in the Badulla district and then joined Whitalls Plantation on 11 October 1950. Wijeratne had the rare opportunity to also understudy De Kretser on their rubber property Bibile Group which they had just acquired from the Dunlop rubber Company.Carlyle’s father Harris was instrumental in securing his first appointment at Whittalls. He went onto hold senior positions in the tea plantation sector including being appointed General Manager of Demodara Group in 1968, the largest tea plantation in Ceylon. He served as a Director of Whittals Estates and Agencies, Gordon Frazer and Co, Ltd., Bosanquet and Skrine. He was the Chairman of Planters Society from 1967 to 1968 and the Chairman of Planters Association of Ceylon from 1970 to 1971. He was also Chairman of the Agency section of the Planters Association, Chairman of the Colombo Tea Traders’ Association, Vice President of the Ceylon Institute of Planting, Member of the Ceylon Tea Propaganda Board, and Member of the Tea Research Institute of Ceylon.

Government sector

In 1977, on invitation of President J. R. Jayewardene, he switched to the government sector by becoming Director Operations of the Lake House Group of Newspapers. Thereafter in 1978 he was appointed

Permanent Secretary A permanent secretary is the most senior Civil Service (United Kingdom), civil servant of a department or Ministry (government department), ministry charged with running the department or ministry's day-to-day activities. Permanent secretaries are ...

to the Ministry of Agricultural Development and Research and Chairman of the Agricultural Development Authority, Sri Lanka State Plantations Corporation, Land Reform Commission, Pelwatta Sugar Company and Rajarata Food Grain Processing Co.

Military service

In 1984 Wijeratne was commissioned as lieutenant colonel in the

Sri Lanka Army Volunteer Force The Sri Lanka Army Volunteer Force (SLAVF) is the active-duty volunteer reserve force of the Sri Lanka Army. The SLAVF is separate from the Regular Force (known as the ''regular army'') which consists of personal who are professional soldier ...

and became the first

commanding officer The commanding officer (CO) or commander, or sometimes, if the incumbent is a general officer, commanding general (CG), is the officer in command of a military unit. The commanding officer has ultimate authority over the unit, and is usually give ...

of the 2nd Battalion, Sri Lanka Rifle Corps on its formation. The Rifle Corps, drew its members from the plantation sector in the central hill country.

Political career

Wijeratne resigned from all government posts and his

commission In-Commission or commissioning may refer to: Business and contracting * Commission (remuneration), a form of payment to an agent for services rendered ** Commission (art), the purchase or the creation of a piece of art most often on behalf of anot ...

when he went into active politics in 1988 when he was appointed Chairman of the

United National Party The United National Party (UNP; , ) is a Centre-right politics, centre-right political party in Sri Lanka. Founded in 1946, the party was one of Sri Lanka's two main parties for several decades. The UNP has served as the country's ruling party ...

. He later went on to become the General Secretary of the Party. Wijeratne led the party in 1988 Presidential elections followed by the 1989 General Elections. Wijeratne was appointed a National List member of parliament in 1989 and was appointed as

and State Minister of Defence by

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

Ranasinghe Premadasa Sri Lankabhimanya Ranasinghe Premadasa ( ''Raṇasiṃha Premadāsa''; ''Raṇaciṅka Pirēmatācā''; 23 June 1924 – 1 May 1993) was a Sri Lankan politician and statesman who served as the third President of Sri Lanka from 2 January 1989 unt ...

. Wijeratne invariably made many enemies due to his tough position. He was equally hawkish in dealing with

Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE; , ; also known as the Tamil Tigers) was a Tamil militant organization, that was based in the northern and eastern Sri Lanka. The LTTE fought to create an independent Tamil state called Tamil Eela ...

(LTTE) and

Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP; , PLF) is a Marxist–Leninist political party in Sri Lanka. The party was formerly a revolutionary movement and was involved in two armed uprisings against the government of Sri Lanka: once in 1971 JVP ins ...

(JVP) militants.Menon ramesh.Explotion Setback.IndiaToday.31 March 1991. Having established Operation Combine, he masterminded the JVP near rout in 1989 and the LTTE was to follow.

Death

Wijeratne was killed on 2 March 1991, by the LTTE organisation using a remote controlled

car bomb A car bomb, bus bomb, van bomb, lorry bomb, or truck bomb, also known as a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED), is an improvised explosive device designed to be detonated in an automobile or other vehicles. Car bombs can be roug ...

while he was travelling to his office in

Colombo Colombo, ( ; , ; , ), is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. The Colombo metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of 5.6 million, and 752,993 within the municipal limits. It is the ...

on Havelock Road, during rush hour killing 19 people including the minister and five bodyguards and 13 civilian bystanders. Ironically, two days before his assassination Wijeratne laughed off the LTTE threats to his life saying "Good Luck to them". He was known to have a hard line stance towards the LTTE. Wijeratne was posthumously promoted to the rank of General of the Volunteer Force of the Army and Kotelawala Defence Academy (now Kotelawala Defence University) at its second

convocation A convocation (from the Latin ''wikt:convocare, convocare'' meaning "to call/come together", a translation of the Ancient Greek, Greek wikt:ἐκκλησία, ἐκκλησία ''ekklēsia'') is a group of people formally assembled for a specia ...

, conferred an honorary degree of

Doctor of Law A Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) is a doctoral degree in legal studies. The abbreviation LL.D. stands for ''Legum Doctor'', with the double “L” in the abbreviation referring to the early practice in the University of Cambridge to teach both canon law ...

(LLD) (Honoris Causa). In 2008,

Tamil Tigers The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE; , ; also known as the Tamil Tigers) was a Tamil militant organization, that was based in the northern and eastern Sri Lanka. The LTTE fought to create an independent Tamil state called Tamil Eela ...

alleged that Ranjan Wijeratne tried to kill their leader

Velupillai Prabhakaran Velupillai Prabhakaran (; ; ; 26 November 1954 – 18 May 2009) was a Sri Lankan guerrilla and a major figure of Tamil nationalism, being the founder and leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The LTTE was a militant organiza ...

during the 1990 peace process.

References

External links

*
Official Website of United National PartyRanjan Wijeratne
India Today Group. {{DEFAULTSORT:Wijeratne, Ranjan 1931 births 1991 deaths Ministers of foreign affairs of Sri Lanka Members of the 9th Parliament of Sri Lanka United National Party politicians Sri Lankan planters Sri Lankan full generals Sinhalese military personnel Sri Lanka Army Volunteer Force officers Assassinated Sri Lankan politicians Deaths by car bomb in Sri Lanka Sri Lankan terrorism victims Terrorism deaths in Sri Lanka Alumni of S. Thomas' College, Gurutalawa Alumni of S. Thomas' College, Mount Lavinia People killed during the Sri Lankan civil war Ministers of state of Sri Lanka Asian politicians assassinated in the 1990s Politicians assassinated in 1991 Deaths by explosive device