Sivasubramaniam Raveendranath (born 22 February 1951) is a

Sri Lankan Tamil Sri Lankan Tamils ( or ), also known as Ceylon Tamils or Eelam Tamils, are Tamils native to the South Asian island state of Sri Lanka. Today, they constitute a majority in the Northern Province, form the plurality in the Eastern Province a ...

academic and the

Vice-Chancellor A vice-chancellor (commonly called a VC) serves as the chief executive of a university in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia, Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Kenya, other Commonwealth of Nati ...

of the

Eastern University of Sri Lanka The Eastern University Sri Lanka (abbreviated as EUSL) is a public university in Vantharumoolai, Eastern Province, Sri Lanka. It was established on 1 October 1986. The university was preceded by the Batticaloa University College established on ...

. He

disappeared An enforced disappearance (or forced disappearance) is the secret abduction or imprisonment of a person with the support or acquiescence of a state followed by a refusal to acknowledge the person's fate or whereabouts with the intent of placing ...

after attending a conference on 15 December 2006 in a high-security zone in

Colombo Colombo, ( ; , ; , ), is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. The Colombo metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of 5.6 million, and 752,993 within the municipal limits. It is the ...

and was last seen leaving the conference after receiving a telephone call. His current whereabouts are unknown and his family have claimed that they believe that he has been killed.

Disappearance

Raveendranath had been with the

since its inception but he had to give his resignation following threats and the kidnapping of Dean Dr. K. Balasukumar to the University Grants Commission (UGC) Chairman. However, the UGC asked him to work from the capital,

. He moved to Colombo and lived there with his daughter. According to his son-in-law, M. Malaravan: Prior to his disappearance, Raveendranath was attending the annual sessions of the Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science at Vidya Mandiraya, which is situated in a high security zone in

. He was last seen leaving the session after receiving a phone call. Local media have reported that there are allegations that gunmen belonging to the paramilitary organisation Tamil Makkal Viduthalia Pulikal (TMVP) have kidnapped him.

Reactions

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...

issued an appeal expressing concern Robert J. Quinn Director

Scholars at Risk Scholars at Risk (SAR) is an international network of academic institutions organized to support and defend the principles of academic freedom and to defend the human rights of scholars around the world. As of 2024, network membership is reported ...

Network issued an appeal to president

Mahinda Rajapakse Mahinda Rajapaksa (; ; born Percy Mahendra Rajapaksa; 18 November 1945) is a Sri Lankan politician. He served as the sixth President of Sri Lanka from 2005 to 2015; the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka from 2004 to 2005, 2018, and 2019 to 2022; the ...

The staff of the Eastern University of Sri Lanka went on strike demanding his release.

Government investigation

The

Criminal Investigation Department The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) is the branch of a police force to which most plainclothes criminal investigation, detectives belong in the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth nations. A force's CID is disti ...

(CID) investigation revealed that the initial threats to him came from an armed group suspected to be the

TMVP Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP; , ), formerly known as the "Karuna Group", is a political party in Sri Lanka. It was formed by Karuna Amman (Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan), a former leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, after he de ...

. Raveendranath's driver has been detained and it is alleged that he had received telephone calls from people "believed to be" members of the

. His kidnapping is seen as part of series of abductions of Tamils and are part of the "era of terror" abductions by

death squads A death squad is an armed group whose primary activity is carrying out extrajudicial killings, massacres, or enforced disappearances as part of political repression, genocide, ethnic cleansing, or revolutionary terror. Except in rare cases in ...

and pro government militias which were responsible for the disappearances of thousands of people since the 1980s. Human rights watch states majority of disappearances involve Sri Lankan security forces and paramilitary groups like the

led by Karuna and the government response has been inadequate. A member of the Civil Monitoring Committee on Extra Judicial Killings, Abductions and Disappearances, Mano Ganeshan said that

References

External links

AHRC list of Disappeared people in Sri Lanka 2006 -2007
{{DEFAULTSORT:Raveendranth, Sivasubramaniam 1951 births 2000s missing person cases Enforced disappearances in Sri Lanka Missing Sri Lankan people Missing person cases in Sri Lanka Sri Lankan Tamil people Sri Lankan academics Vice-chancellors of Eastern University, Sri Lanka

Disappearance

Reactions

Government investigation

See also

References

External links