The rage, the pain
By Laila Nasry
The area around Sri Jayawardenepura University is in mourning. Posters cover the walls and white flags flutter from every tea kiosk, lottery stall and three-wheeler. All are mourning the senseless loss of a young life.

Ovitigala Vithanage Samantha, 24, will never wear a gown or graduate at the end of next year. He will never realize his dream of setting up his own business. There will be no more trips to Nanu-oya with friends, baths at waterfalls, strolls through Hakgala gardens or tender moments with his girlfriend.

For Samantha was brutally battered within the university where he was a third-year student. Why? For fearlessly opposing ragging seen in all its violence in recent years and standing by his belief that such behaviour should be eradicated from universities.

Samantha was not the violent type. Nor was he politically active or part of a big movement of anti-raggers.

"Even when a kalamediriya was caught in a spider's web, Samantha would take an alpeneththiya and separate the strands to free the creature," his mother recalls.

He was also dubbed "gam sabhave veda" by his uncles because he was always helping others. That he was a favourite with children was evident from a poster drawn in a childish hand reading, 'Samantha Aiyya hari hondai'.

"Mage karumetada danne meke vune," his mother grieves, adding that she always wanted her son to go to university. It was a family tradition. His parents, his sister, his elder brother are all graduates. And Samantha did not fall short. Having got an A, two Bs and a C at the AL's it was his turn to enter campus to earn a degree in Management Studies.

"He was asleep, tired after having helped and attended a funeral the previous day, so I didn't tell him to go to university that day," his mother says. But fate had other plans for him.

In the afternoon, three friends told Samantha that a discussion was to be held to bring about an understanding between raggers and anti-raggers. "I was in school when they came. But his sister had told him not to go. He went any way," says his mother.

Earlier Samantha had complained to the university authorities that a fresher had been assaulted because he tried to resist the rag. "Samantha always saved students from being ragged and this time was no different," a friend said.

When Samantha and five friends were awaiting the others for the discussion, around 500 people armed with poles and weapons had stormed the fourth-floor lecture room in the new management building on campus. There was no escape from the angry mob for Samantha and his colleagues.

"Samanthala dora hira karan hitiya eth kadagene athulata avith thiyeneawa. Athulata enna hadana kota thamai apita call eke labune," a friend recalled saying at around 4.30 p.m. he had received a call from a trapped victim that they were under attack. When the friends rushed to their assistance they were being taken to hospital. "Eth api gettuwa langata enakota anthimayawa van eke dagene ispiritaleta geniyanewa," he said.

When the mob entered the room, Samantha had pleaded that the others should not be harmed. "Ithuru tika nung kiyala vedak ne," another student said.

"This is nothing but murder in the highest degree," charged Samantha's father.

When they heard of the violence and that their son was a victim, Samantha's father had rushed to the intensive care unit of the Colombo National Hospital. "He was on the life support machine. His entire head was bandaged and one side of his body was severely injured and bruised.

You could see the marks of the of the 'polu'."

Samantha never regained consciousness.

"Me minissu nevei thirisannu. Saththu wath me vage aparadayak karanne ne." (Whoever did this to my son are not humans but beasts. Even animals don't do such things), his father says bitterly.

"This was a calculated and organized attack, one that had been planned for a long time," says a close friend of Samantha's. "None of us," he says pointing to a dozen or so students both male and female, "got ragged in our first year, and we were constantly surrounded and threatened that someday before we leave campus they (the raggers) will get us."

Complaints to the administration and to the police regarding these threats had fallen on deaf ears. "One of us had to die for the authorities to sit up and take note," he says.

The questions are endless. Who are the perpetrators? What were the marshals doing when these boys were being attacked? Why didn't the police intervene when they were requested to do so?

The hostel is the breeding ground for all of this, says Samantha's friend. "Although the hostel can accommodate only 700 students over 2000 stay there. The Maha Shishya Sangamaya (Students' Council) supports the raggers.

"Isn't there a law within the universities?" Samantha's father questions. "The authorities always state there is no more ragging in universities. There are laws prohibiting it but nothing is enforced. My son had to die as a result."

The crucial question is from where did all the hatred as witnessed during this incident come from. Has society been so brutalized that human life has lost its value?

These questions need answers very fast before another innocent life is snatched away.

'We have failed'
"We have not been very successful role models," says educationist Jezima Ismail, who felt the older generation had failed in their collective responsibility. "We have to impose some kind of discipline and stick to it. If not, we are giving room for thuggery and violence."

Ragging in her time, was done in a friendly and affectionate manner, she recalls. "But now it is with so much vengeance."

This problem has to be tackled at all levels she feels. "What have we taught our children on containing conflict, on containing violence? What methods have we taught to impart self discipline...all these issues must be addressed not just at tertiary level but also at secondary level."

Call for public views
Tertiary Education Minister Kabeer Hashim, at a meeting with the Vice Chancellors and Deans of the respective universities to discuss how violence and ragging can be effectively eradicated called on the public to send in their views as to what steps can be taken to prevent such situations occurring in the future.

All suggestions should be directed to The Secretary, Ministry of Tertiary Education and Training, 18, Ward Place, Colombo 7.

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