Somawansa Amarasinghe (original) (raw)

Amarasinghe Kankanamlage Somawansa (1 January 1943 – 15 June 2016 as Sinhala: සෝමවංශ අමරසිංහ), commonly as Somawansha Amarasinghe, was a Sri Lankan politician, and the 4th leader of Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, after Rohana Wijeweera, Saman Piyasiri Fernando and Lalith Wijerathna and served as its leader for 23 years until February 2, 2014. He is often described as a strategic leader who socialized the ideological struggle of the JVP into socialism through the nationalist struggle to save the country from Tamil separatist terrorism.