Death
On August 8, 1992 Maj. General Kobbekaduwa, General Officer Commanding Northern Sector, Brigadier (posthumously Major General) Vijaya Wimalaratne, Jaffna Brigade Commander and Commodore (posthumously Rear Admiral) Mohan Jayamaha, Commander Northern Naval Area were killed when the Land Rover they were traveling in was destroyed by a land mine blast. Seven others were killed in the explosion, including Lt. Colonels G.H. Ariyaratne, A. Palipahana, H.R. Stephen, all three battalion commanders, Lieutenant Commander Asanga Lankathilaka, Lieutenant Commander C.B Wijepura and Major N.S. De Alwis, General Kobbekaduwa's ADC.
They were planning an offensive code named "Operation Final Countdown" to liberate the northern peninsula from the LTTE, which was to be launched shortly. The final decision was delayed until they could reconnoiter in a particular area to finalise troop movements, which required a visit to Araly point the next day. As they were returning to be taken back to the base by helicopter, the incident occurred.
An explosion was heard by two Majors who were watching the Land Rover jeep in which the three military leaders were traveling. Majors Rupasinghe and Induruwa were 400 yards away from the jeep. When they came running up, they found that except for two persons, the others, whose bodies were mutilated, had died instantaneously.
The officer's wife, Lali Kobbekaduwa, called for an international commission into the incident. This was not granted, but the Sri Lankan Government set up their own commission to investigate.
A Presidential Commission carried out by the Sri Lankan Government concluded that the President Ranasinghe Premadasa as well as members of the Sri Lankan Army such as Major W A N M Weerasinghe were "directly responsible" for his death.
Read more about this topic: Denzil Kobbekaduwa
Famous quotes containing the word death:
“But the life of Spirit is not the life that shrinks from death and keeps itself untouched by devastation, but rather the life that endures it and maintains itself in it. It wins its truth only when, in utter dismemberment, it finds itself.... Spirit is this power only by looking the negative in the face, and tarrying with it. This tarrying with the negative is the magical power that converts it into being. This power is identical with what we earlier called the Subject.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)
“Bruno Antony: Tell me, Judge, after you’ve sentenced a man to the chair, isn’t it difficult to go out and eat your dinner after that?
Judge Dolan: When a murderer is caught he must be tried, when he is convicted he must be sentenced, when he is sentenced to death he must be executed.
Bruno Antony: Quite impersonal, isn’t it?
Judge Dolan: So it is. Besides, it doesn’t happen every day.
Bruno Antony: So, few murderers are caught?”
—Raymond Chandler (1888–1959)
“I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”
—Voltaire [François Marie Arouet] (1694–1778)