COLOMBO:Maj Gen Chrishantha de Silva has been appointed Commander of the Sri Lankan Army following the retirement of Lt Gen Daya Ratnayake on Friday. Maj Gen de Silva was the senior most officer in the army when he was overlooked and Gen Ratnayake was appointed by the Rajapaksa regime. He was posted in Russia as Deputy Ambassador instead.
Gen de Silva belongs to the Combat Engineers Division and is the third engineer to rise to the highest position in the Lankan army. Earlier, the media had reported that Maj Gen Rambukpotha will be the new Commander because former Army chief and pro-government political leader Gen Sarath Fonseka was pushing his case. Though an outstanding officer Maj Gen Rambukpotha’ s case was not entertained by the Sirisena government which decided to go for seniority.