Gota’s War The Author’s Account
Sunday, May 20, 2012
By Maryam Azwer
C. A. Chandraprema addresses the gathering and Gotabaya Rajapaksa Autographs a copy of “Gota’s War”
The book which Chandraprema narrates “Gota’s War”
Quote“Gota was in Weli-oya at that time and one day, Ranjan Wijeratne had visited his headquarters along with Major Gen. Denzil Kobbekaduwa. After the usual briefings followed by lunch, minister Wijeratne had a one to one chat with Gota under a tree in the compound of the brigade headquarters and wanted to know why he was trying to leave the army. Gota explained that he had not made a decision yet, despite the report in the Sunday Island.
Wijeratne told Gota that he was doing a good job and that since he has been in the operational areas throughout, he would like Gota to take a break in Colombo.
Gota said he was quite happy commanding his battalion, but Wijeratne had insisted that he should take up an appointment in Colombo. On minister Wijeratne’s orders, he was posted to the Kotalawala Defence Academy (KDA) as the deputy commandant at the end of 1990. Several weeks later, on 2 March 1991, Ranjan Wijeratne was assassinated in a massive bomb blast just metres from his private residence in Colombo.
It was after the charismatic deputy defence minister was assassinated that Gota put in his papers for retirement. He retired from the army on 1 November 1991. Looking back at this period, Gota says, ‘A lot of good officers left because they thought the way the war was conducted was an exercise in futility.
The LTTE would be cleared from one place only to return the moment the army withdrew. There was no driving factor to remain because nothing worthwhile was happening.”
Unquote
From Gota’s War: The Crushing of Tamil Tiger Terrorism in Sri Lanka, by C. A. Chandraprema
Excerpts from the interview:Gota’s War, a book on Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict and the end of the LTTE, has been the centre of attention since its release on Monday. With some praising the author’s efforts at compiling and narrating these events, and others questioning why the book focuses exclusively on the role played by Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.
In an interview with The Sunday Leader, author and Divaina columnist C. A. Chandraprema discussed the reasons behind writing this book, his choice of the title, and some of the responses to Gota’s War.
In an interview with The Sunday Leader, author and Divaina columnist C. A. Chandraprema discussed the reasons behind writing this book, his choice of the title, and some of the responses to Gota’s War.
Q: What motivated you to write this book?
A: Motivation comes in different ways. When I wrote about the JVP insurrection in 1990, that too didn’t occur to me on its own. It was just my editor who said to me, write two or three articles about this. So I started, and it became fifty two articles, and it became a book. So that’s how things happen. I suppose every writer has his own story about how he started writing something. Here, I have to say that it was
Kumar Rupesinghe. He kept prodding, over a period of time. He first made the suggestion, and it took me more than a year to get started on it.
A: Motivation comes in different ways. When I wrote about the JVP insurrection in 1990, that too didn’t occur to me on its own. It was just my editor who said to me, write two or three articles about this. So I started, and it became fifty two articles, and it became a book. So that’s how things happen. I suppose every writer has his own story about how he started writing something. Here, I have to say that it was
Kumar Rupesinghe. He kept prodding, over a period of time. He first made the suggestion, and it took me more than a year to get started on it.
