COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s Defence Secretary, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who played a pivotal role in militarily defeating the LTTE, has an MSc in Defence Studies from the University of Madras.
According to the Department of Information website, Gotabaya completed a course at the Defence Services Staff College at Wellington, Nilgiris, in 1983.
Gotabaya, who was Lt Colonel when he quit the Sri Lankan army after 21 years of service to pursue a civil career in the US, had his initial training as an infantry officer at the Military Academy at Diyatalawa. He then went to Rawalpindi, Pakistan, to complete the Young Officers’ Course.
Later, he did a mid-career course at Quetta, did advanced training in counter insurgency and jungle warfare in India’s Northeast and took advanced training at the Infantry School at Fort Benning, US. Being IT savvy, he obtained a postgraduate degree in Information Technology from the University of Colombo in 1992.
Gotabaya has been the recipient of a Commendation Letter from former President J R Jayewardene and medals for valour, such as the Rana Wickrama Padakkama and the Rana Sura Padakkama.
He has commanded many anti-terrorist operations in the Sri Lankan North and East. Among them were the command of the first Battalion of the Gajaba Regiment during the Vadamarachhi Operation, which led to India’s military intervention in July 1987. He was also part of Operation Trividabalaya in Jaffna in 1990.
When his brother, Mahinda Rajapaksa, was elected President of Sri Lanka in November 2005, Gotabaya came from the US to take charge as Secretary of Defence, Public Security, Law & Order. He narrowly escaped from the jaws of death in December 2006, when he was the target of a terrorist bomb attack in Colombo.