61 Facts About Gotabaya Rajapaksa

Gotabaya Rajapaksa was a target of an assassination attempt in December 2006 by a Tamil Tiger suicide bomber.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa's administration mishandled the COVID-19 pandemic response and drove Sri Lanka into an economic crisis, leading the country to default on its debts in 2022.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa's government responded with authoritarian crackdowns: state of emergency declarations, curfews, military-led arrests, suppression of dissent, and assaults on journalists and demonstrators.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa officially resigned via email from Singapore the next day, becoming the first Sri Lankan president to flee the country mid-term.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa later returned to Sri Lanka on 2 September, 2022.

Nandasena Gotabaya Rajapaksa was born in Palatuwa in the Matara District, as the fifth of nine siblings, and was brought up in Weeraketiya in the southern rural district of Hambantota.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa's father, D A Rajapaksa, was a prominent politician, independence agitator, Member of Parliament, Deputy Speaker and Cabinet Minister of Agriculture and Land in Wijeyananda Dahanayake's government.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa obtained his primary and secondary education at Ananda College, Colombo.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa joined the Sri Lankan Army as a cadet officer on 26 April 1971, when Sri Lanka was still a dominion of the British Commonwealth and was in the midst of the 1971 JVP insurrection.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa played a major role in establishing the regimental headquarters of the newly formed regiment at Saliyapura.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa took part in Operation Liberation commanding the 1GR, the offensive mounted to liberate Vadamarachi from LTTE in 1987.

In July 1987, the 1GR was transferred to Colombo and Gotabaya Rajapaksa assisted Colonel Wimalaratne in securing Colombo with the outset of the second JVP insurrection until his battalion was transferred to Trincomalee in October 1987.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa was promoted to lieutenant colonel while in course and returned to his staff appointment at Army Headquarters in January 1989.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa subsequently migrated to the United States in 1998 and worked at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, US, as a Systems Integrator and Unix Solaris Administrator.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa re obtained citizenship of Sri Lanka but kept his US citizenship.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa was appointed to the post of Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Defence in November 2005 by newly elected President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa is credited with using the Karuna faction effectively during the war to defeat the LTTE.

The former LTTE commander Vinayagamoorthi Muralitharan, better known as Colonel Karuna, told British authorities that Gotabaya Rajapaksa was instrumental in arranging for him to be issued with a false diplomatic passport so that he could flee to Britain in September 2007.

In June 2007, Gotabaya Rajapaksa was severely critical of the United Nations and of western governments.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa accused the UN of having been infiltrated by terrorists "for 30 years or so", and as a result the UN was fed incorrect information.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa alleged that Britain and the EU were bullying Sri Lanka, and concluded that Sri Lanka "does not need them", and that they don't provide any significant amount of aid to the country.

Critics pointed out that in 1990 his brother Mahinda Gotabaya Rajapaksa was caught attempting to bring evidence of human rights violations in Sri Lanka to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights and the evidence was confiscated by the government during which Gotabaya Rajapaksa justified foreign intervention in Sri Lankan affairs.

Mahinda Gotabaya Rajapaksa had demanded western nations to limit and put conditions on foreign aid to Sri Lanka.

On 18 October 2007, attorney-at-law Ali Sabry and lawyers representing Gotabaya Rajapaksa wrote to Wickrematunge threatening to sue him for defamation for Rs.

On 22 February 2008, Gotabaya Rajapaksa filed a lawsuit for defamation against Wickrematunge and Leader Publications, charging that the allegations made by Wickrematunge against Gotabaya Rajapaksa were defamatory.

On 3 February 2009, Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa stated to the international media, that everything was a legitimate target if they were not within the government designated No Fire Zone and that all persons subject to attack by the armed forces were legitimate LTTE targets as there were no independent observers, only LTTE sympathisers.

General Sarath Fonseka who led the war against LTTE had accused Gotabaya Rajapaksa of ordering at the end of the war the shooting of any LTTE leaders who might try to surrender under flags of truce.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa is alleged to have threatened to execute Fonseka if he revealed any war secrets.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa however visited the United States in 2016 and two Tamil groups urged the United States government to arrest and prosecute him.

The letter sent by Gotabaya Rajapaksa was prepared in haste and even the biodata of Bulathwatte was not attached despite it being a requirement for him to get his visa and have the appointment regularised by the Foreign Ministry.

Investigations on assassinations, abductions and assaults on journalist after the fall of the Rajapaksa government revealed that Gotabaya directed a death squad to attack journalists that was outside the Army command structure.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa has been accused of threatening journalists on several occasions, including telling two journalists attached to the state-owned Lake House Publications that unless they stop criticising the armed forces "what will happen to you is beyond my control".

Gotabaya Rajapaksa was accused of threatening to "exterminate" the Daily Mirror journalist Uditha Jayasinghe for writing articles about the plight of civilian war casualties.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa rejected the allegations regarding occupying a house rented for a consulate in LA.

Gotabhaya Gotabaya Rajapaksa is married to Ioma and has one son.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa had dual Sri Lankan and US citizenship but had to renounce his US citizenship prior to running for president in 2019.

However, this was denied by Gotabaya Rajapaksa but claimed that he will accept if he was offered the candidacy.

Wickrematunge's daughter's lawsuit alleged that Gotabaya Rajapaksa was behind his death.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who was visiting the US to renounce his citizenship, was served legal documents outside a Trader Joe's parking lot in Pasadena.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa arrived back to Sri Lanka from the United States and was greeted by his supporters and members of the Buddhist Clergy who came to the Bandaranaike International Airport to stand in solidarity with Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa alleged that the case filed against him by Wickrematunge's daughter was "politically motivated" by the United National Party to stop him from contesting the presidential election that year.

On 27 February 2020, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals granted Wickrematunge's daughter's request to vacate the District Court's ruling that Gotabaya Rajapaksa is entitled to foreign official immunity for acts committed while he was Secretary of Defense of Sri Lanka.

On 11 August 2019, Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna led by former president Mahinda Gotabaya Rajapaksa announced that Gotabaya Rajapaksa will be their candidate for the 2019 presidential election.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa won a majority in the predominant Sinhalese areas of the island which included the districts of Kalutara, Galle, Matara, Hambantota, Monaragala, Ratnapura, Badulla, Kurunegala, Puttalam, Gampaha, Kandy, Matale, Polonnaruwa Colombo, Kegalle and Anuradhapura, while Premadasa gained a majority in areas dominated by Tamil and Muslim minorities, which had been effected by the civil war.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa was pressured to not to contest at the presidential elections because of holding dual citizenship.

Former President and the elder brother of Gotabaya, Mahinda Rajapaksa was accused of using his executive powers to grant his brother, the Sri Lankan citizenship after commencing his first term as president in November 2005.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa was allowed to contest at the elections but did not take part in the debate among presidential candidates which was held on 5 October 2019, was historically Sri Lanka's first-ever debate to have been conducted among presidential candidates for an upcoming election.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa's name was included in the Quarterly Publication of Individuals Who Have Chosen to Expatriate for Q2 2020.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa's inauguration took place at the Ruwanwelisaya in Anuradhapura on 18 November 2019.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa took away the power from three of his relatives, ousting two of his brothers and his nephew from the Cabinet.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa's administration is said to have caused the Sri Lankan economic and food crisis following his policies of tax reduction, money printing, and organic farming.

The Sri Lankan government under President Gotabaya Rajapaksa transferred the administration of non-protected forests, known as "other state forests", to regional authorities, in a controversial circular, with a view to releasing them for agriculture and development.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa administration introduced massive tax cuts in late 2019, which lead to a drop in government revenue that was compounded with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw the island nation losing its lucrative US$3 billion tourism industry that put 200,000 out of work in 2020 and most of 2021.

In early 2022, the Gotabaya Rajapaksa administration avoided debt restructuring opposing an IMF bailout in favour of a homegrown solution for the debt crisis.

On 9 July 2022, Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled his official residence in Colombo prior to protesters breaking through police barricades and entering the premises.

Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that Gotabaya Rajapaksa had been allowed entry into Singapore on a private visit, and that he had neither asked for nor been granted any asylum.

Later that day, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa sent his resignation letter to the Speaker of the Parliament through email, formally announcing his resignation.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa would be the first Sri Lankan president to resign in the middle of his term.

On 2 September 2022, Gotabaya Rajapaksa returned to Sri Lanka, ending his 52-day self-imposed exile.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa received the Eastern Humanitarian Operations Medal and the Northern Humanitarian Operations Medal during his tenure as Defense Secretary.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa received an Honorary Doctorate, a Doctor of Letters from the University of Colombo on 6 September 2009, along with his brother President Mahinda Rajapaksa following public acclaim as a war hero.