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Norwegian University of Life Sciences
department of International Environment and Development Studies, Noragric
Official in Charge

date 17 December 2006

President Mahinda Rajapakse
Presidential Secretariat
Colombo 1
Sri Lanka

Your Excellency,

Re. Professor S. Raveendranath, Eastern University, Sri Lanka, who has been missing since Friday the 15th of December 2006

We at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences are deeply concerned about reports that Prof. S. Raveendranath of the Eastern University, Sri Lanka (EUSL) has been missing since Friday the 15th of December. I have personally known Prof. Raveendranath in his capacity as the Vice Chancellor of EUSL, which is one of our institutional partners in Sri Lanka. My colleagues and I are well aware of his sustained efforts over the years to build the academic capacities of the Eastern University amid difficult circumstances. More recently he was involved in developing a proposal for a master’s degree programme in peacebuilding and development to be conducted jointly by Tribhuvan University, Ruhuna University, EUSL and the Norwegian University of Life Sciences. Earlier this year he represented his institution in a workshop on this programme hosted by our Department and together with his colleagues from Ruhuna made valuable contributions. The news that he has not been seen since Friday afternoon, when he was on official duty in Colombo, has caused us great anxiety about his safety.

I earnestly appeal to your Excellency to take urgent action to find the whereabouts of Prof. Raveendranath and ensure his safe return to his family.

Yours sincerely,

Professor Ruth Haug

Head, Department of International Environment & Development Studies, Noragric

Norwegian University of Life Sciences

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TamilNet Report:

[Sivasubramaniam Raveendranath, Vice Chancellor of Eastern University]

TamilNet Report:

S. Raveendranath, the Vice Chancellor of the Eastern University of Sri Lanka (EUSL), who was forced to resign his post recently following threats from paramilitary Karuna Group that abducted a Deen of the EUSL demanding the resignation of the Vice Chancellor, was reported missing since 1:30 p.m. Friday, Dehiwale Police in Colombo said. The VC was reported missing in High Security area in the Bauddhaloka mawatta.

Mr. Raveendranath, who was working at University Grants Commission (UGC) where he had submitted his resignation, was on his way to attend a meeting of Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science (SLAAS) at Vidya Mawatta near Bauddhaloka mawatta where he was last seen by his driver at 12:30 a.m.

The Vice Chancellor had instructed his driver to come back at 2:00 p.m. when the meeting is over.

The driver contacted the family as he could not get in touch with Mr. Raveendranath, family members have told media.

A complaint was registered at the Police around 9:30 p.m. Friday.

Raveendranath, 55, and father of two girls, was living in Colombo as his resignation was not accepted by the UGC.

Raveendranath began his carrer in 1978 in Karadiyanarau at the Institute of Agriculture, and he was a founder-member of the EUSL, founded in 1980.

On 30 September, unidentified gunmen, widely believed to be from Karuna group, came in a white van, kidnapped the Dean of Arts faculty at the EUSL, Dr. Bala Sugumar while he was at his Uppodai home in Batticaloa.

The kidnappers had demanded the immediate resignation of the Vice Chancellor of EUSL, Dr. S. Ravindranath, before releasing Bala Sugumar.

A senior lecturer of the Eastern University, Mr. Kumaravel Thambaiah, was shot and killed by the paramilitary group on 24 May 2004.