Major General Sarath Munasinghe, who held two prominent posts in the Sri Lanka Army passed away at the Asiri Surgical hospital on Monday after a brief illness at the age of 59.
A battle hardened infantryman, Major General Munasinghe who held the post of Army spokesman also served as a career Intelligence Officer and for a time was the Deputy Director of Military Intelligence.
He commanded the platoon which killed Charles Anthony alias Seelan who was a close confidant of LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, in the early ‘80s in Jaffna. Soon afterwards his name was listed in the LTTE’s target list.
In 2000 he entered Parliament and held the position of Deputy Speaker for a brief period.
Major General Munasinghe RWP RSP USP (Retd) who retired from the Army in December 1999 joined politics after an illustrious career of nearly 29 years of military service.
He joined the Sri Lanka Army on 5th February 1970 as a Cadet Officer and was later commissioned in the rank of Second Lieutenant, attached to the 4th Battalion Sri Lanka Artillery (SLA) on 1st June 1971. He was at the same time posted to the Diyatalawa Army Training Centre as an instructor of the Recruit Training Wing.
He served as General Staff Officer (GSO) 1 (Intelligence) at Operational Headquarters, Ministry of Defence (MoD), Commanding Officer 6 SLA, GSO 1 of 5 Brigade Group Mannar, Military Assistant and Assistant Military Secretary after his promotion as Lieutenant Colonel on 15th October 1988.
His career as a senior military officer further shined following a series of commitments heaped on him as Coordinating Officer – Welioya, Director Psychological Operations – Army Headquarters (AHQ), Commander 12 Brigade Colombo, Director and Head of Media Unit Operational Headquarters MoD, Director Media Army Headquarters and Coordinator- in- Chief for Batticaloa and Ampara Districts. He was appointed as Major General on 23rd February 1998. He had also held the post of Commander, Security Forces Headquarters Jaffna, and he commanded the 51 and 54 Divisions in Jaffna as General Officer Commanding for more than a year.
Major General Sarath Munasinghe had published a book titled “A soldiers version”after he retired from the service in early 2000.
Late Major General Munasinghe’s funeral was held in his hometown Kurunegala with military honours yesterday.
