Ranjan Wijeratne, another LTTE victim

by K.M.H.C.B. Kulatunga

The United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) is due to begin its latest sessions in Geneva tomorrow.

At a time certain countries in the West are raring to take Sri Lanka to task, purely for the ‘sin’ of crushing LTTE terrorism, we wish to highlight one of the many brutal killings of this one-time world’s most ruthless terrorist outfit.

We urge all who point fingers at Sri Lanka to think twice of the numerous LTTE atrocities and their total disregard for human rights. The West should respect the human rights of innocent civilians and the legitimate right of a democratically elected government to protect them, rather than voicing hard on the human rights of terrorists.

It is 21 years ago that the Tiger terrorists brutally assassinated Sri Lanka’s then Deputy Minister of Defence Ranjan Wijeratne, who had been playing a crucial role in the battle against terrorism. He was also the Minister of Plantation Industries.

On March 2, 1991, the LTTE carried out a massive car bomb explosion near Police Park in Colombo 5, killing the 59-year-old Minister and 18 others. Minister Wijeratne had been travelling to his office when a remote-controlled bomb in a parked car was detonated during the morning rush hour. Among those killed were five bodyguards protecting the Minister.

In 1990, Minister Wijeratne had told Parliament: “I am going all out for the LTTE. I never do anything in half measures.” Ever since, the Tiger terrorists had been targeting Wijeratne, who had been successful in urging the Indian authorities to crack down on militants based in the southern state of Tamil Nadu.

Minister Wijeratne was posthumously promoted from a Colonel of the Sri Lankan Army to a General.

Ranjan Wijeratne was born on April 4, 1931 to Walpola Mudalige George Hercules Wijeratne and Rosalind Maria Senanayake. He was educated at S. Thomas’ College, Guruthalawa and S. Thomas’ College, Mt. Lavinia.

Wijeratne began his career as a planter, holding many high positions in the tea plantation sector. In 1978 he was made Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Agricultural Development and Research and Chairman of the Agricultural Development Authority.

In 1984 Wijeratne was commissioned as Lieutenant Colonel in the Sri Lanka Rifle Corps with its formation, which was established to provide security to the plantation sector.

He resigned from all government posts and his commission when he went into active politics in 1988 when he was appointed Chairman of the United National Party.He went on to become the General Secretary of the Party. Wijeratne was appointed from the National List to Parliament in 1989 and was appointed Cabinet Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of State for Defence by President Ranasinghe Premadasa.

Wijeratne was firm in his stance that there should be no ceasefire until the LTTE stops its terror acts as the Tigers had used all previous ceasefires to strengthen their military capabilities.

Wijeratne was a brave man who never did anything in half measures. On June 18, 1990, he declared in Parliament, to the cheers of his compatriots: “I am going all out for the LTTE. I never do anything in half measures. I challenge Prabhakaran to come out in the open. He wants my head. I want his. I am going for him and his cohorts”.

He said, albeit, a trifle defensively: “Pirabaharan is not someone who has fallen from the sky. He is a human being and we will deal with him”

Wijeratne once thought his offensive against the LTTE had come to a near conclusion. “Now the LTTE are running without their shoes out. Very soon their pants will go too. There will be no LTTE or watch-posts soon. We will flatten the LTTE,” he had declared once.

“The IPKF got rid of the hard-core elements. What is left is the baby brigade of young boys and girls. They will wet their pants when they meet my Armed Forces.”

“There will no ceasefire. Until the LTTE stops its nonsense, the military machine will continue to move”, he had said.

Minister Wijeratne was one of the many Sri Lankan and world leaders assassinated by the LTTE during its three decades of terror until the Security Forces liberated the country and over half a million civilians under the political leadership of President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

If not for that right political leadership which inspired the Security Forces to put a permanent end to decades of suffering due to LTTE terror, we would have lost many more leaders such as Wijeratne.