page_title: Ranasinghe Premadasa
section_title: Presidency
hierarchical_section_title: Ranasinghe Premadasa / Presidency
caption_attribution_description: Photograph of Raja (elephant) with Hon.Ranasinghe Premadasa &amp; Mr.Neranjan Wijeyeratne
context_page_description: Sri Lankabhimanya Ranasinghe Premadasa was the third
  President of Sri Lanka from 2 January 1989 to 1 May 1993. Before that, he served as the Prime Minister in the government headed by J. R. Jayewardene from 6 February 1978 to 1 January 1989. He was awarded Sri Lanka's highest award to a civilian Sri Lankabhimanya in 1986 by President Junius Richard Jayewardene, the first to receive in Sri Lankan history. He was assassinated in Colombo in a suicide bombing by the LTTE.
context_section_description: He was elected second Executive President of the country when late J. R. Jayewardene stepped down, and led the UNP to victory at the general election held in 1989. The country faced both a civil war in the north and a communist insurgency in the south at the time, both key issues Premadasa concentrated on, with particularly ruthless actions against the insurgents. The security forces brutally put down the revolt and killed many of its leaders.
  Premadasa also concentrated on a grassroots-level economic development drive, focusing on the provision of housing, poverty alleviation and the upliftment of the poor. He encouraged the building of model villages with clean water, transport infrastructure, schools and health centers. He encouraged the establishment of small-scale industries (mostly garment-related) in poor areas by giving factory owners low-interest loans and a share in textile quotas for the United States and Europe. The Gam Udāwa programme is one of his best-known achievements in this area, along with the Janasaviya programme that is today part of the Samurdhi scheme. His proposal to declare 1987 as the International Year of Shelter for the Homeless was unanimously accepted at the 37th session of the United Nations General Assembly.
  His handling of the country's civil war was less successful. In the north, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam were facing off against the Indian Peace-Keeping Force- the Indian presence on the island was unpopular, and Premadasa requested India to pull out its troops. In order to force the IPKF to leave the island, he authorized a clandestine operation to supply arms to LTTE, a collusion that came to light in the report published by the Sri Lankan Presidential Commission to inquire into the 1992 assassination of Lieutenant General Denzil Kobbekaduwa. While the IPKF was recalled by New Delhi in 1990, the government's war with the LTTE resumed, beginning Eelam War II, which ended in a stalemate five years later. 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.
  In September 1991, Premadasa faced an impeachment in parliament led by his two formidable rivals in the UNP, Lalith Athulathmudali and Gamini Dissanayake. He defeated it by adjourning Parliament and the Speaker Mohamed dismissed the impeachment stating a lack of signatures after several of the parliamentarians who supported it withdrew their support after facing threats. He then expelled Athulathmudali and Dissanayake from the party, who then joined to form the Democratic United National Front (DUNF).
  In 1992, he changed the country's name in English from Sri to Shri Lanka on the advice of soothsayers, who predicted it would improve the country's fortunes. The spelling was restored after his assassination in 1993.
caption: Ranasinghe Premadasa and Diyawadana Nilame Neranjan Wijeyeratne with Raja Elephant
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