COMMANDO REGIMENT

By Lt-Col. Sunil Peiris

ISBN 978-624-97955-0-1: First

Edition 2021: Expographics

Some observations by Firoze Sameer

Major General Lalin Fernando’s illuminating review followed by management guru Pradeepa Kekulawala’s transformational leadership aspect in the Sunday Times Plus of September 5 & 19 respectively, and former police Snr-DIG Merril Gunaratne’s exhaustive piece in the Sunday Island of September 12, on Lieutenant-Colonel Sunil Peiris’s 225-page masterpiece, is a daring story about the brilliant and highly commendable feats of an illustrious officer and a gentleman, which one should decidedly read during one’s lifetime.

Summoned in November 1977 by Prime Minister JR Jayewardene, as a 29-year old captain of the 1st battalion of Gemunu Watch Regiment, he was accompanied by the army commander, Maj-Gen. (later Gen.) Dennis Perera, VSV, FCMI, and his ADC Capt (later Major) Shahul Hameed “Ganja” Mohamed, who was three years senior to me at Royal College Colombo.

Lt Col. Peiris was especially selected, for the task assigned to him by the PM in the presence of a high-powered body comprising of the secretary/Defense, Col. CA Dharmapala, OBE, ED; additional secretary/Defense Lt-Gen. (later Gen.) Don Sepala Attygalle, LVO, ED; GVP Samarasinghe, CCS, secretary/Foreign Affairs WT Jayasinghe, Ravi Jayawardene and Capt Rakhitha Wickremanayake, to create a deterrent force to protect the proposed national airline from highjacking, which unit eventually evolved into the daring maroon-bereted Commando Regiment.

One is inevitably reminded of an equally dynamic commando unit headed by SS-Captain (later Lt-Col.) Otto Skorzeny, selected by Adolf Hitler during WW2 and assigned the incredible task of rescuing Italian dictator Benito Mussolini from a hotel in the Gran Sasso mountain in Italy. The daring task he achieved with 16-paratroopers, on 12 September, 1943, was swiftly responded by the immediate award of the knight’s cross with promotion to the rank of major. Such fitting reward was sadly missed out in Lt-Col. Sunil Peiris’s swell of similar sorties he led from the front, risking life and limb.

The training he received from Pakistan’s SSG, the Israeli defense forces, the Royal marine commandos and the German GSG-9, followed by the British Army Training Team (BATT)’s arrival in Sri Lanka, in attending to the colossal amount of work involved, in establishing a dynamic commando outfit, stood him in good stead to give solid and rigorous training and leadership to his courageous task force.

Apart from acknowledging an unknown jailor’s bravery in having stood his ground and saved the detainees in Wing-C, the Tamil survivors of the 1983 Welikada jail massacre have reportedly appreciated Lt-Col. Peiris and his commando unit for their sheer gallantry in having heroically rescued 20-detainees on 27 July, while 17 of them were already being massacred, which was a sequel to the massacre of 35-detainess on the 25th, during the Black July-83 holocaust..

Lt-Col. Peiris’s close knit family – beloved parents, younger sister and especially wife Manisha – gave him strong support to achieve his onerous tasks in spite of facing some tragedies, one of which was his equally competent younger brother, Wing Commander Eksith Peiris, who died in a tragic accident while on training.

To fit in his wife’s medical program in the UK, President JR Jayewardene, secretary/Defense Gen. Attygalle and Ravi Jayewardene, generously granted his request of fourteen months’ leave from Sep-84 to Nov-85 and also arranged to secure a seat for him at the Staff College Camberley in the UK, also offering him financial assistance from the President’s fund, which financial offer he politely declined in having sufficient funds.

His sudden decision to quit arose from the political interference by a “government servant,” a Rifle Corps lieutenant colonel of rural plantation exposure in direct contrast to Lt-Col. Peiris’s brilliant military command, in which he desisted from following criminal orders. Similar in line were the premature departures, as stated by Maj-Gen. Lalin Fernando, of Lt-Colonels (later brigadiers) Vipul Botejue the ex-Royalist, and Hiran Halangoda, and Col. Lalith Guneratne: all eminent officers of great honor and rectitude, who firmly upheld and rigidly stuck to their profound principles.

Lt-Col Sunil Peiris deserves to be promoted, even at this late stage, to at least major-general by HE the President, who, himself as a lieutenant colonel of the Gajaba Regiment, should surely recognize the sterling services Lt-Col. Peiris has rendered to the Sri Lanka army in establishing its indefatigable Commando Regiment.

firozesameer@gmail.com

(The writer is the author of dOSSIEr COREA: A Portfolio on Crime, short-listed by the Gratiaen Prize Committee, 1998, and Complex Melange, published by Amazon.com)

Sunday. 03 October, 2021

Wordcount: 712