Sri Lankan President clears names of 19 leaders who were branded 'traitors' during British rule

Sri Lanka's President Maithripala Sirisena on Thursday cleared the names of 19 Sri Lankan leaders who were branded as 'traitors' during the British colonial rule nearly 200 years ago the President's media division said.

Sirisena cancelled a gazette issued by English Governor Robert Brownrig on January 10, 1818, listing the 19 leaders, including Keppetipola Disawe, as traitors.

"After 198 years, I cleared the names of Wellassa heroes including Monarawila Keppetipola," President Sirisena said in a tweet.

The decision was announced following a recommendation made by Justice Minister Wijedasa Rajapakse to rescind the January 1818 gazette which declared the 19 leaders as traitors, and make a fresh proclamation making them national heroes.

Hardline nationalists from the majority Sinhalese community have been pressing for the scrapping of the colonial-era decrees against those who resisted British rule.

Keppetipola, more widely known as Keppetipola Disawe, was a high-ranking official under the rule of a past Sri Lankan King Sri Wikrama Rajasinghe and later under the British Administration in Sri Lanka (then known as Ceylon).

He was a prominent leader of the Uva rebellion of 1818 after he joined the rebels, whom he was sent to suppress by the British.

The rebellion was defeated by the British, and Keppetipola Disawe along with several other leaders of the rebellion were found guilty of high treason and sentenced to death.

He is well known for the exceptional courage that he showed at the moment of his execution.

Sri Lanka, then known as Ceylon, gained independence from British rule in 1948. The British ruled Sri Lanka from 1815 to 1948. Endit