and his caretaker
Neranjan Wijeyeratne.
Premadasa Ranasinghe Premadasa (born 1924) was the 3rd
president of Sri Lanka. After serving as the country's 8th
Prime Minister, and an
MP from
Colombo Central district, Premadasa was elected president in
1988. Soon after being elected president, he dissolved parliament and called for fresh elections. In the
1989 parliamentary election, his party, the
UNP, won 125 seats, forming a government with a majority in parliament. At the time he became president, the country faced both a
civil war in the north and a
communist insurgency in the south, both key issues Premadasa concentrated on, with particularly ruthless actions against the insurgents. His security forces brutally put down the revolt and killed many of its leaders. His handling of the country's civil war was less successful. In the north, the
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) faced off against the
Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF). The Indian presence on the island was unpopular, and Premadasa requested
India to pull its troops out of Sri Lanka. In order to force the IPKF to leave the island, Premadasa supplied
arms to the LTTE to fight the IPKF-backed
Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front. Premadasa's arming of the LTTE has since been acknowledged by his party, and many acknowledge that this may have set the
government back severely in fighting the war. The
1990 massacre of Sri Lankan Police officers, which occurred after the policemen were asked to surrender to the LTTE in
Batticaloa at Premadasa's request, was later established to have been performed with the same weapons he had supplied them. While the IPKF was recalled by
New Delhi in 1990, the government's war with the LTTE resumed, beginning
Eelam War II. By 1991, the LTTE retaliated against the Indian government by
assassinating Indian Prime Minister
Rajiv Gandhi. In September 1991, Premadasa faced an impeachment attempt in parliament led by former prime minister
Sirimavo Bandaranaike, and backed by two formidable rivals from his own political party,
Lalith Athulathmudali and
Gamini Dissanayake, both of whom were also eventually assassinated by the LTTE. Premadasa was accused of
corruption,
favoritism,
nepotism, as well as subverting the Constitution. The impeachment proceedings were later dismissed by
Speaker of the Parliament M. H. Mohamed due to a lack of signatures.
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were a
Tamil militant organization that was based in northeastern Sri Lanka. The LTTE fought to create an independent Tamil state, which they called
Tamil Eelam, in the north-east of the island where the majority of Tamils resided. They cited the continuous
discrimination and
violent persecution against Sri Lankan Tamils by the
Sinhalese-dominated
Sri Lankan Government as their motive. Founded in May 1976 by
Velupillai Prabhakaran, the LTTE was involved in armed clashes against the Sri Lankan government and its
armed forces. Initially starting out as a
guerrilla force, the LTTE increasingly came to resemble that of a conventional fighting force with a well-developed military wing that included a
navy, an
airborne unit, an
intelligence wing, and a
specialised suicide attack unit. The LTTE popularised and perfected the use of a
suicide vest as a weapon, a tactic now used by many current militant organizations. In the years during and since the civil war, many nations have recognized the LTTE as a
terrorist organization. Nations that have designated the LTTE as a terrorist group are:
European Union,
Canada,
India,
Malaysia,
Sri Lanka,
United Kingdom, and
United States. On May Day 1993, the LTTE employed Kulaveerasingam 'Babu' Veerakumar to target and assassinate President Premadasa.
Veerakumar and Mohideen Kulaveerasingam Veerakumar, who commonly went under the alias 'Babu', was a 23-year old male from the coastal village of
Gurunagar in
Jaffna, who had spent years prior becoming acquainted with many people close to Premadasa. Specifically, Veerakumar exploited the president's valet, E.M.P Mohideen's fondness of
liquor, to gain his confidence. According to former
deputy inspector general with the
Criminal Investigation Department, Amarasena Rajapakse, "The assassination occurred due to the negligence of domestic staff and mid-level security personnel." Rajapakse states that Veerakumar often flew in helicopters with advance presidential parties, including security men, in the company of Mohideen, but the valet carefully concealed him from Premadasa in such instances. Investigators believe Mohideen even helped Veerakumar pass a security check when he carried out the actual assassination. It is unknown if Mohideen had prior knowledge of the attack, considering that even he perished in it. Veerakumar moved to Colombo in April 1992 and began operating a grocery shop. He also ran a trucking service that operated between Colombo and Jaffna. There were reportedly instances in which Mohideen allowed his trucks to pass without having to stop at
checkpoints. Rajapakse said that he had been warned in early March 1993 of an attempt to poison Premadasa, and advised Premadasa as well as his domestic and security staff. "I asked them the places where vegetables were purchased. We wanted the purchases to be made at random from different places. This was because of fears of poisoning... Our request for the domestic staff was if they knew anyone in particular getting close to them to let us know,' Rajapakse said. "But the answer, particularly by late Mr. Mohideen, was that there was nothing." ==Assassination==