DailyMirror
Five IDP university students commit suicide
The govt’s discrimination of the Tamil community and its failure to provide for the needs of students living in internally displaced people’s camps had led to five of them committing suicide, the Inter-University Student Federation (IUSF) said yesterday.
IUSF convener Udul Premaratne blamed the govt for the deaths of the five final year university students. He said the students did not have the basic facilities to carry out their academic activities and had to contend with the adverse and pathetic living conditions in the refugee camps.
“Balasingham Karunanidhi, one of the students who took his life last week, was known to have been ill but the authorities had failed to provide him adequate medical treatment,” Mr. Premaratne said.
“This sad and tragic situation is unacceptable and the govt should look to the needs of these people,” he said. Mr. Premaratne said Ravindradasan Victor Arundas another of those students was a victim of a shell attack during the war suffered from severe shrapnel wounds.
“He and a friend committed suicide by jumping into a lake. In a letter he had written before his death he had said he did not have the wherewithal to live. He had come to the end of the road and saw no other options left but to take his life,” he said.
Mr. Premaratne said due to the lack of proper shelter, 343 IDP university students had sought refuge inside the Jaffna University.
“This is an insult to the Tamil people and is another example of the difficulties they face in a country. These are just five known cases of suicide amongst displaced university students. You can then imagine how many more unknown cases of this nature are taking place or have taken place,” he charged.
Mr. Premaratne said the government had earlier this year loudly proclaimed it would resettle the remaining displaced people January this year but this was only an empty promise with the resettlement nowhere near completion.
“The government should be held accountable for the lives of these hapless people,” he reiterated.