SRI LANKA: EASTERN UNIVERSITY VICE-CHANCELLOR

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 COLOMBO 002095 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR SCA/INS E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/18/2016 TAGS: PGOV PREL PTER PHUM MOPS CE SUBJECT: SRI LANKA: EASTERN UNIVERSITY VICE-CHANCELLOR ABDUCTED IN COLOMBO HIGH SECURITY ZONE REF: A. COLOMBO 1887 ¶B. COLOMBO 622 AND PREVIOUS Classified By: Ambassador Robert O. Blake, Jr., for reasons 1.4(b,d). ¶1. (C) Summary. Eastern University (Batticaloa) Vice-Chancellor S. Ravindranath disappeared from an area of heightened security in Colombo midday on December 15. Civil monitors and human rights activists allege that the LTTE-breakaway Karuna faction (TMVP),in collusion with state security forces, perpetrated the abduction. They argue that inquiries to government authorities from diplomatic missions and international organizations may catalyze Ravindranath's safe release. The Ambassador raise U.S. concerns with Human Rights Minister Samarasinghe on December 18. The Minister said a serious investigation was underway and that he would be recommending that the President meet with Ravindranath's family. End Summary. Vice Chancellor Disappears -------------- ¶2. (C) Eastern University (Batticaloa) Vice-Chancellor S. Ravindranath disappeared from an area of heightened security in Colombo midday on December 15. Ravindranath moved from Batticaloa to Colombo following the September abduction of Eastern University Dean Balasugamar, whose kidnappers demanded the Vice Chancellor resign. Although Ravindranath submitted his resignation to the University Grants Commission (UGC) on September 30 in response to these threats, the President and UGC chairman Gamini Samaranayake declined to accept his resignation, asking the Vice Chancellor to carry on with his duties from Colombo. ¶3. (C) Government media attempted to establish a "Tamil Tiger" (LTTE) link to the disappearance on December 18 through the Vice Chancellor's driver, but Ravindranath's abduction appears to be linked with that of Dean Balasugamar (ref A). Balasugamar told poloff in an October 15 meeting that members of the Karuna group abducted and detained him, releasing him after his influential brother-in-law, a doctor, visited President Rajapaksa to inquire about the crime (ref A). Local Civil Monitors Finger Karuna, State Security Apparatus -------------- ¶4. (C) Poloff met December 18 with Civil Monitoring Committee on Abductions, Disappearances and Extrajudicial Killings(CMC) member and Member of Parliament for the Western People's Front, Colombo District, Mr. Mano Ganesan. The CMC is an independent organization of Tamil and Sinhalese politicians (including the late Tamil National Alliance MP Raviraj who was assassinated November 13). ¶5. (C) Ganeshan alleged that Vice Chancellor Ravindranath, who had shared his concerns with the CMC, had written to Defense Secretary Gothabaya Rajapaksa the week before his abduction requesting police protection. According to Marcel Smits of the Non-Violent Peace Force, the University Grants Commission Chairman had submitted a similar request for security for Mr. Ravindranath at that time, though no security was provided. When Ravindranath's daughter, Dushanthi Malaravan, reported her father's disappearance at the Dehiwala police station, officers told her they were unaware that anyone under threat lived in their jurisdiction, according to testimony Malaravan gave the CMC. ¶6. (C) Ganesan told poloff that following telephone threats that he cease human rights inquiries, police are providing Ganesh protection, but that "I am made to understand that my enhanced security is traded for my anticipated silence on human rights abuses and the dismantling of the Civil Monitoring Commission." He said that four other CMC members, including three Tamils and one Sinhalese politician, Sirithunga Jayasuriya, secretary of the United Socialist Party, have received death threats by phone. He said: "I am convinced as an MP for Colombo that Defense Secretary Gothabaya Rajapaksa is the one involved." In a December 17 COLOMBO 00002095 002 OF 002 letter to the Ambassador, Ganesan named "paramilitary terrorist elements and highly influential sections of the state security apparatus." ¶7. (C) According to Ganesan, the Karuna group objected to the Vice Chancellor's Jaffna origin and his decision not to hire a Karuna backed construction company to build new university buildings. The independent Daily Mirror newspaper noted December 18 that the eastern LTTE-breakaway Karuna faction had demanded that all Tamil intellectuals and business people of Jaffna origin leave Batticaloa after the March 2004 split. International NGO Requests Embassy Intervention -------------- -- ¶8. (C) Marcel Smits of the Non-Violent Peace Force (NVPF),an international non-governmental organization, called poloff December 18 to request that the Embassy inquire to our contacts within the GSL about Ravindranath's abduction. He said that the NVPF has credible evidence that the Karuna group, who apparently abducted Dean Balasugamar (protect), also abducted Ravindranath. ¶9. (C) Smits said: "We have a good idea of whom we're dealing with. The last time (when Balasugamar was abducted) concerted efforts by international organizations and diplomatic missions to express concerns to the right people made a difference." (Note: The Embassy registered its concerns over the abduction of Balasugamar, who was scheduled to participate in an International Visitors Program the week after his disappearance, to senior GSL officials. End note.) Smits contended: "We have information that Ravindranath is being held in the same location where Balasugamar was held. We know such interrogation takes place in these camps, near Mutugal or Momadapitiya." Smits added that the Vice Chancellor has a heart condition and requires daily medication. ¶10. (C) Ambassador called Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe to register U.S. concern about the disappearance. Samarasinghe confided that the Deputy Inspector General of the Criminal Investigations Department of the police had arrested Ravindranath's driver. He said he planned to meet with Ravindranath's family and would recommend that the President also meet them. Ambassador welcomed those moves and asked that U.S. concern be conveyed to the President, which Samarasinghe agreed to do. ¶11. (C) COMMENT: Another high profile disappearance in Colombo, where the streets are lined with security forces' checkpoints, raises our suspicion that elements of the security forces probably collude in these abductions. We will continue to impress upon GSL authorities our deep concern over the pattern of continued abductions and disappearances and the deterioration of the law and order environment around the country, including the capitol. BLAKE