Saliya Upul Aladeniya

Captain Saliya Upul Aladeniya
Birth name Samarakoon Wasala Mudiyanselage Saliya Upul Aladeniya
Born (1963-03-01)1 March 1963
Lewella, Kandy
Died 11 June 1990(1990-06-11) (aged 27)
Kokavil, Sri Lanka
Allegiance  Sri Lanka
Service/branch Sri Lanka Army
Years of service 1989-1990
Rank Captain
Unit Sri Lanka Sinha Regiment
Commands held Officer-in-command, Kokavil Army Camp
Battles/wars Sri Lankan civil war
Awards Parama Weera Vibhushanaya
Weera Wickrama Vibhushanaya

Saliya Upul Aladeniya PWV, WWV, SLRS (In Sinhalese: කපිතාන් සාලිය උපුල් අලදෙනිය; 1 March 1963 – 11 June 1990) was the second recipient of the Parama Weera Vibhushanaya, highest war time award for valour of the Sri Lanka Military. He was a Sri Lankan army officer who refused to abandon the injured of his platoon and, fought until the Kokavil army camp was overrun by LTTE.

Educated at Trinity College Kandy, he joined the Sri Lanka Army in 1989. After basic training he was commissioned as Second Lieutenant into the Sri Lanka Sinha Regiment.

Lieutenant (at that time) Aladeniya was in command of an army outpost with a handful of men at Kokuvla (Kokavil) that was established for guarding the television relay station. The camp was surrounded for several days by LTTE cadres who outnumbered them five to one. The food and water were running out in the camp and so was the ammunition. In spite of many requests, reinforcements sent from Lt. Aladeniya's regimental headquarters in Nuwara Eliya never reached Kokavil, having been diverted elsewhere. Orders to withdraw from the camp came at the eleventh hour but then it was too late and Aladeniya had wounded men whom he did not want to leave behind. Pledging that he would rather die alongside them than leave them, Lt. Aladeniya fought on till an adjacent fuel dump exploded, killing the majority of the defenders in the camp.

Lt. Aladeniya lost his life and was posthumously promoted to rank of Captain and honoured with a Parama Weera Vibhushanaya medal on June 21, 1994.

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