Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Gotabaya also spelled Gotabhaya, (born June 20, 1949, Palatuwa, Matara district, Sri Lanka), Sri Lankan military officer and politician who served as secretary to the Ministry of Defense (2005–15) during the final years of the country’s civil war and later as president (2019–22). Rajapaksa played an instrumental role in bringing the civil war (1983–2009) to an end through an escalation in violence. He has since been accused of war crimes and human rights violations but has eluded investigation.   Early life and education Rajapaksa was born the fifth of nine children in a Buddhist Sinhalese family. His father, D.A. Rajapaksa, was a member of the Sri Lankan parliament (1947–65) representing Beliatta.   After finishing his secondary education at Ananda College in Colombo, Gotabaya Rajapaksa joined the Sri Lankan army in 1971. He underwent training and coursework in India (at Wellington), in Pakistan (at Rawalpindi and Quetta), and in the United States (at Fort Benning, Georgia). He earned a master’s degree in defense studies at the University of Madras in 1983.