Operation Combine

Last updated

Counterinsurgency during the second JVP insurrection
Part of 1987-1989 JVP insurrection
Date1989-1990
Location
Result Sri Lankan Government captures and executes major rebel leaders
Belligerents
Flag of Sri Lanka.svg Sri Lanka
Hammer and Sickle Red Star with Glow.svg JVP
Commanders and leaders
Flag of Sri Lanka.svg Coat of arms of Sri Lanka.svg Ranjan Wijeratne Hammer and Sickle Red Star with Glow.svg Rohana Wijeweera   Skull and Crossbones.svg
Hammer and Sickle Red Star with Glow.svg Saman Piyasiri Fernando   Skull and Crossbones.svg
Hammer and Sickle Red Star with Glow.svg Upatissa Gamanayake   Skull and Crossbones.svg
Operation Combine
Allegiance Sri Lanka Armed Forces
RoleGround warfare
Commanders
Colonel of
the Regiment
Janaka Perera
Founder Ranjan Wijeratne

Operation Combine ( Ops Combine) was a special operation established by the Sri Lanka Army from 4 August 1989 to February 1990 as counterinsurgency operation with support of the Sri Lanka Police against the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) which had launched a its second insurgency in 1987. [1]

Contents

Background

By the late 80s the Sri Lankan Government was at conflict with various Tamil and Sinhalese militant groups. The Tamil militants were active in the North-Eastern province and the Sinhalese militants were active in the South-Western province. The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna was the most significant threat to the government as of 1989 due to their attempts to topple the government.

The JVP in 1987 bombed the Sri Lankan parliament as an attempt to topple the government. By the 1988 the insurgency came to peak and everyday, over 50 bodies were discovered on the streets.

Operation

Under orders from the newly elected President Ranasinghe Premadasa, Operation Combine was established by Lieutenant Colonel Ranjan Wijeratne, State Minister of Defence on 4 August 1989 at the height of the 1987–89 JVP Insurrection in the south of Sri Lanka. The Special Task Force was headed by Major General Cecil Waidyaratne, Army Chief of Staff with Brigadier Lakshman Algama serving as his deputy and established its headquarters at Havelock Town. The Special Task Force carried out intelligence gathering and direct action operations against the JVP, targeting its leadership. It was successful in tracking down and eliminating much of the JVP leadership which culminated with the capture and death of its leader Rohana Wijeweera on 12 November 1989. [1]

On December 27, 1989, a special police team, led by SSP Lionel Gunathilake, arrested Saman Piyasiri Fernando along with his mother and fiance; who was a sister of JVP politburo member Daya Wanniarachchi, at Koswatte, Nawala, at a rented house owned by Mark Antony Fernando, who works at SLBC. According to the police sources, the number of military books found inside the house and some of them are not found in Sri Lankan military libraries. Lalilth Wijeyrathna, Upali Jayaweera, Ranjitham Gunaratnam, Gamini Wijegunasekara and Shantha Bandara tried to regroup. However, the government forces managed to capture them and subsequently killed them on December 1989. The leadership of the JVP was transferred to Lalith Wijerathna. It is believed that Wijerathna was captured in Colombo by a special police team from Kandy either late December 1989 or early January 1990. At a later date in January he was allegedly executed by his captors in Kandy in the last days of the operation Combine. [1]

End of the operation

The Sri Lankan government media released on December 29, 1989, as "the leader of the JVP military wing killed along with four other cadres due to the cross fire between security forces and the JVP at their military wing headquarters, a farm located at Hedigama-Suwarapola, Piliyandala". Following the death of Wijeweera and other key leaders, the JVP insurrection collapsed and Operation Combine was terminated in February 1990 by Ranjan Wijeratne. [1]

Notable members

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna</span> Marxist-Leninist political party in Sri Lanka

Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna is a Marxist–Leninist communist party in Sri Lanka. The movement was involved in two armed uprisings against the government of Sri Lanka: once in 1971 (SLFP), and another in 1987–89 (UNP). The motive for both uprisings was to establish a socialist state.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rohana Wijeweera</span> Sri Lankan politician and revolutionary

Patabendi Don Jinadasa Nandasiri Wijeweera (Sinhala: පටබැඳි දොන් ජිනදාස නන්දසිරි විජෙවීර; 14 July 1943 – 13 November 1989, better known by his nom de guerreRohana Wijeweera, was a Sri Lankan Marxist political activist, revolutionary and the founder of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna. Wijeweera led the party in two unsuccessful insurrections in Sri Lanka, in 1971 and 1987 to 1989.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1971 JVP insurrection</span> Armed revolt in Ceylon

The 1971 Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) insurrection was the first of two unsuccessful armed revolts conducted by the communist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) against the socialist United Front Government of Sri Lanka under Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike. The revolt began on 5 April 1971 and lasted until June of that year. The insurgents held towns and rural areas for several weeks, until the regions were recaptured by the armed forces, following strong support from friendly nations that sent men and material. Although this first attempt to seize power was quickly crushed by force, in 1987 the JVP launched a low-intensity insurgency in the island's southern, central and western regions that lasted several years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1987–1989 JVP insurrection</span> Armed revolt in Sri Lanka

The 1987–1989 JVP insurrection, also known as the 1988–1989 revolt or the JVP troubles, was an armed revolt in Sri Lanka, led by the Marxist–Leninist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, against the Government of Sri Lanka. The insurrection, like the previous one in 1971, was unsuccessful. The main phase of the insurrection was a low-intensity conflict that lasted from April 1987 to December 1989. The insurgents led by the JVP resorted to subversion, assassinations, raids, and attacks on military and civilian targets while the Sri Lankan government reacted through counter-insurgency operations to suppress the revolt.

General Ranjan Wijeratne was a Sri Lankan planter and politician. He served in the Premadasa cabinet as Minister of Foreign Affairs and then Minister of Plantation Industries, while holding the office of State Minister for Defence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1987 grenade attack in the Sri Lankan Parliament</span>

The 1987 grenade attack in the Sri Lankan Parliament is an attack that took place on August 18, 1987, when an assailant hurled two grenades into a room where Members of Parliament were meeting. The grenades bounced off the table at which Sri Lankan President J. R. Jayawardene and Prime Minister Ranasinghe Premadasa were sitting, and rolled away. A Member of Parliament and a ministry secretary were killed by the explosions.

Sellapperumage Saman Piyasiri Fernando, was the military wing leader of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna during the 1987-89 insurrection in Sri Lanka, the JVP's military wing also known as Deshapremi Janatha Viyaparaya (DJV). His position in the JVP as the military commander was organizationally higher than the position of Rohana Wijeweera, the founder of the JVP.

Stanley Wijesundera was a Sri Lankan academic. A professor of Chemistry, he was the first vice chancellor of the University of Colombo from 1979 to 1989 and was the chairman of the Association of Commonwealth Universities from 1983 to 1984.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deshapremi Janatha Vyaparaya</span> A former paramilitary organization in Sri Lanka

Deshapremi Janatha Vyaparaya was a militant organisation in Sri Lanka. It was widely considered to be the military branch of the Marxist–Leninist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna and had been designated as a terrorist organisation by the Sri Lankan government.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Upatissa Gamanayake</span> Sri Lankan politician

Don Upatissa Gamanayake, also known by his alias Dias Mudalali, was a Sri Lankan politician and the deputy leader of the Jantha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) during the 1987–89 insurrection. Not a prominent figure during the JVP's 1971 insurrection, Gamanayake emerged as a leader only after the releasing of the JVP detainees in 1977. He moved up rapidly in the party hierarchy during the JVP's 1977-83 democratic phase and became the second in command after the founder and the leader, Rohana Wijeweera. He unsuccessfully contested the 1983 Anamaduwa by-election under JVP. Gamanayake was captured and killed by the government forces in November 1989.

1989 Temple of the Tooth attack is an attack on the Temple of the Tooth Relic, located in Kandy, Sri Lanka. The shrine, which is considered to be important to the Buddhists in Sri Lanka, houses the relic of the tooth of the Buddha, and is a UNESCO designated World Heritage Site. It was attacked on 8 February 1989 unknown military group in Sri Lanka.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lalith Wijerathna</span> Sri Lankan politician and third leader of JVP (1958–1990)

Vijalath Pathirannehelage Lalith Wijeratne, popularly as Lalith Wijerathna, was a Sri Lankan politician and militant leader. He was a member of the JVP party in the period 1983-1990. He was known to be appointed as the third leader of the JVP after Rohana Wijeweera and Saman Piyasiri Fernando.

Amarasinghe Kankanamlage Somawansa, commonly as Somawansha Amarasinghe, was a Sri Lankan politician, and the 4th leader of Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, after Rohana Wijeweera, Saman Piyasiri Fernando and Lalith Wijerathna and served as its leader for 23 years until February 2, 2014. He is often described as a strategic leader who socialized the ideological struggle of the JVP into socialism through the nationalist struggle to save the country from Tamil separatist terrorism.

Terrorism in Sri Lanka has been a highly destructive phenomenon during the periods of the Sri Lankan Civil War (1983–2009) and the first and second JVP insurrections. A common definition of terrorism is the systematic use or threatened use of violence to intimidate a population or government for political, religious, or ideological goals. Sri Lanka is a country that has experienced some of the worst known acts of modern terrorism, such as suicide bombings, massacres of civilians and assassination of political and social leaders, that posed a significant threat to the society, economy and development of the country. The Prevention of Terrorism Act of 1978 is the legislation, that provides the powers to law enforcement officers to deal with issues related to terrorism in Sri Lanka. It was first enacted as a temporary law in 1979 under the presidency of J. R. Jayewardene, and later made permanent in 1982.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frontline Socialist Party</span> Leftist political movement in Sri Lanka

The Frontline Socialist Party is a communist party in Sri Lanka. It was launched on 9 April 2012 by dissident members of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna.

The 1989 Kandy massacre was a series of retaliatory attacks on the villages of Menikhinna, Arangala, Mahawatta, and Kundasale in the Kandy District of Central Province, Sri Lanka during the 1987-89 JVP Insurrection. While the massacre was officially attributed to the vigilante group Eagles of the Central Hills, other reports and eyewitness accounts claim that it was a joint operation conducted by the army and police. It was one of the largest single incidents reported to Amnesty International during the JVP Insurrection.

The attack on the Magazine prison was an attack carried by Deshapremi Janatha Viyaparaya, the armed wing of the JVP which was staging a rebellion within Sri Lanka.

Communism in Sri Lanka dates back to 1935, when the Lanka Sama Samaja Party was founded by Trotskyists who campaigned for freedom and independence of Sri Lanka which was then a colony of the British Empire and known as Ceylon.

Patriotic People's Armed Troops was a militant organization in Sri Lanka. The organization was recognized as a military arm of the Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, which was attempting to overthrow the government of Sri Lanka.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Assassination of Vijaya Kumaratunga</span> 1989 murder in Colombo, Sri Lanka

Vijaya Kumaratunga, Sri Lankan politician and founder of the Sri Lanka Mahajana Pakshaya, was assassinated by an assassin of the militant organization Deshapremi Janatha Viyaparaya (DJV) on February 16, 1988, while attempting to leave his home in Polhengoda in Colombo. Shot in the head as he reached the gate to his residence, Kumaratunga died on the same day at 12:22 pm, before being taken to the hospital.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Ferdinando, Shamindra (17 March 2013). "President fails to capitalize on victory over JVP War on terror revisited". The Island. Sri Lanka. Retrieved 30 June 2020.