New Delhi, Jan 18
The distraught family of Sri Lanka's most high profile kidnap victim
is begging the authorities to accept his resignation as
vice-chancellor of a university, the key demand of abductors who
seized him from under the very nose of the government over a month
ago.
In a case that has raised international stink, S. Raveendranath, 55,
who has headed the Eastern University of Sri Lanka for around three
years, sensationally disappeared Dec 15 from near a conference hall
in a supposedly high security area of Colombo.
Since then, the Tamil man's wife has almost stopped eating and
spends her days and nights in agony on bed, their son-in-law and
trainee eye surgeon Muthusamy Malaravan, 36, told IANS over
telephone from their Colombo home. "She is crying all the time. The
family members are in severe mental trauma."
Adding to the worry is Raveendranath's feeble health. He is a
diabetic and suffers from hypertension, both of which necessitate
regulate doses of medicines. Any slip up can lead to a stroke that
can prove fatal.
Malaravan, who has stopped doing surgeries because of the tension he
is in, has one humble request to the University Grants Commission (UGC):
Please accept my father-in-law's resignation as vice-chancellor so
that the kidnappers let him go.
The abductors, widely believed to be the breakaway Tamil Tigers
faction headed by Karuna, apparently want Raveendranath, who is from
the north of the island, out of the university near the eastern town
of Batticaloa, in a zone they consider as their own.
The UGC has different ideas. It thinks that if it were to give into
the demand of the abductors, its "prestige" will be hit. That
"prestige" is prolonging the agony of an already distressed family -
the missing man's wife, two daughters and son-in-law.
In a violence-torn country where kidnappings of Tamils, the rich as
well as the not so rich, have become routine, Raveendranath has
still attracted a lot of attention in Sri Lanka and abroad as one
who joined the Eastern University in 1981 as an assistant lecturer
and rose to become the acting vice-chancellor in 2004 before
assuming full charge in 2005.
And it was in 2004 that Karuna, the once famed regional commander of
the Liberation Tigers of Tami Eelam (LTTE), broke away with his
supporters. He has since been locked in a bloody turf war with the
dominant LTTE for control of Sri Lanka's multi-ethnic east,
apparently with Colombo's backing.
"It is more than one month and nobody is telling us where my
father-in-law is," said Malaravan. "We have no single clue, nothing.
They (police) are blank. Police do meet us, but that is all. And
worse, there is no eyewitness to what really happened that day.
"UGC has my father-in-law's resignation. They only need to make it
public. We are requesting them to do it. We are ready to give 100
percent firm assurance that my father-in-law will have nothing to do
with the university once he is freed. We will not file any case. We
pray to god every day."
The family has knocked on every single door in Colombo: President
Mahinda Rajapakse, military officials, foreign embassies, Sri Lankan
and global NGOs, the media and also the Colombo-based office of the
Karuna group, which is laying the blame for the kidnapping on LTTE.
Raveendranath's problems came in the open when armed men abducted
the dean of the arts faculty in September 2005 demanding the
vice-chancellor's resignation. On Oct 2, he sent his resignation to
UGC, and soon the dean was released. According to the family, the
UGC asked him to work in Colombo. He complied. So he remained the
vice-chancellor.
On two later occasions, Raveendranath received telephonic threats:
"You are still working. You are not obeying us. You will be in
danger." He reported the calls to UGC but his resignation was still
not accepted. On Dec 15 he disappeared, becoming the most high
profile of Tamils who have gone missing in Sri Lanka in recent
times.
Malaravan details all that his father-in-law has done for the
Eastern University and the linkages he has forged with universities
around the world including India. The efforts are visible from the
support generated for him in Western academic circles, including the
US, Britain, France, Denmark, France, Sweden, Canada and Japan. But
he remains missing.
Does the family have hope? "We are still positive but worried," says
Malaravan. "UGC must accept his resignation. If everyone works
together, I think he can be released. He is a neutral man. Even if
there is one phone call saying he is well, we shall be happy. Even
that is not there."
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