Ratnasiri Wickremanayake

Ratnasiri Wickremanayake (, ; 5 May 1933 – 27 December 2016) was a Sri Lankan politician who served as Prime Minister of Sri Lanka from 2000 to 2001 and again from 2005 to 2010, and also served as the Leader of the Opposition from 2001 to 2002. He was a Member of Parliament representing the Horana electorate and later the Kalutara District.

Wickremanayake held many ministerial positions in the Sri Lankan government, beginning in 1970.

Early life Wickremanayake was educated in Millewa Primary School, Dharmapala Vidyalaya, Pannipitiya, Hartley College, Point Pedro and Ananda College, Colombo and later as a student joined Lincoln's Inn to become a Barrister of Law, During his time in United Kingdom he was elected president of the Ceylon Students' Association in the United Kingdom in 1955. when he was appointed Deputy Minister for Justice in the United Front government under Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike. Wickremanayake lost his Parliamentary seat in the landslide defeat of the SLFP in the general elections of 1977. He was sworn into office on 13 October 2000. He escaped an assassination attempt by a suicide bomber during the 2001 election.

After the SLFP won the 2004 parliamentary elections, Wickremanayake was appointed Minister of Buddhist Affairs, Public Security, and Law and Order, and Deputy Minister for Defence. He was sworn in for a second time as Prime Minister of Sri Lanka by President Mahinda Rajapaksa on 21 November 2005. He called for Sri Lanka's family planning policies to be modified, to encourage people to have more children. Wickremanayake was considered a hardline opponent of Tamil separatists. On 5 February 2010, he told the Parliament that his government offered the LTTE group amnesty in exchange for surrendering themselves, refused ceasefire appeals from international bodies, and "vowed to crush those who fight on."

Death On 21 December 2016, Wickremanayake was admitted to a private hospital in Colombo. He died on 27 December 2016 at the age of 83 due to an unspecified illness. He was serving as the Senior Advisor to President Maithripala Sirisena at the time of his death.