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Moscow’s student tragedy
By Ruwanthi Herat Gunaratne
It was to be a dream that was destined never to come true. "All she ever wanted to be was a gynaecologist," says Santha Perera, the father of Liyanage Olivia Dilshani Perera, the 19-year-old Sri Lankan student who died tragically in the fire that broke out at The People’s Friendship University, formerly known as Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow, Russia last Monday. Family and friends had gathered at her home in Ja-Ela and were holding a prayer vigil in her memory at the time The Sunday Times visited.

On completing her primary education at Newstead Girls’ School in Negombo, Dilshani proceeded to Visakha Vidyalaya, Colombo for her higher studies. "She was a gifted student, and she moved on to Visakha on completing the Grade Five Scholarship Exam," said her father. She went on to obtain twelve distinctions at the Ordinary Level Examination and just this year completed her Advanced Level Examination in the science stream obtaining three Bs.

A prayer for Dilshani

Once the results arrived they needed to make a decision. Her passion for medicine and her ambition to be a gynaecologist prompted her parents to look into the possibility of Dilshani completing her studies at a foreign university.

"Subsequent to receiving the acceptance letter from another university in Russia, the Patrice Lumumba University contacted us informing us that Dilshani had been awarded a part scholarship. And she left to Russia on October 29," Mr. Perera said.
Less than one month following her departure came the dreaded news. "The Russian Embassy called us and informed us of her death." Dilshani along with two of her friends had jumped out of a room on the third floor of the hostel in the hope of escaping the fire and fallen to her death.

The other two girls suffered serious injuries. "We had spoken to her that night and another friend of hers was also in the room. Dilshani was going to escort that girl to the first floor before coming back to the third floor to sleep. Her mother and I used to get up at 3.30 in the morning to speak to her on the phone, as it would be around 11p.m. in Russia and the ideal time for her to speak to us. We would call her every day like a prayer. She was our only child and speaking to her regularly was our only form of comfort."

"Dilshani was due back on holiday next year. Whenever I called her I would ask if she was comfortable and she never once complained." She would constantly tell her parents that her pockets were getting lighter by the day from spending on phone cards. It was not only in her studies that she excelled. "She was a musician and enthusiastic hockey player. But all she ever wanted to be was a doctor," her father repeats unable to come to terms with his loss.

"Dilshani was a quiet child who kept to herself and never caused any problems," says Soma Herath, Dilshani's class teacher for three years at Visakha. She goes on to say that Dilshani was a keen student whose one ambition was to make her dream of being a gynaecologist come true. "She was always ready to help anyone and everyone and even though she was a Catholic she participated in every single religious ceremony that the school ever organised." Her former classmates echo the same sentiment.

"Studying medicine was everything she dreamt of," says Erandee Abeyakoon, a classmate of Dilshani's during her Ordinary Levels. "Whenever anyone had a problem she was always first in line to help. She was a gifted musician and played the piano."
"She was in my practical group during the A/Ls. She was the kind of student every teacher dreams about - quiet, always ready to help and very keen on her studies. Even though she kept to herself everyone knew of her dream of becoming a doctor," says another Visakhian.

Deadliest blaze in a decade
Thirty-six mainly Asian and African foreign students died last Monday and scores were injured when a fire ravaged a university hostel in Moscow, reportedly the capital's deadliest blaze in a decade, officials said.

The blaze broke out at 2:30 am (2330 GMT) and engulfed a hostel of Moscow's People’s Friendship University, in the southwest of the capital, and was only extinguished some three hours later.

As dawn broke, all that was left of the student accommodation housing foreigners, where more than 270 people had been sleeping at the time of the fire, was a blackened ruin with shattered windows.

The number of deaths caused by fire in Russia has increased sharply over the past decade. It is said that low safety standards and buildings in a bad state of repair are almost always to blame. This particular hostel was built in 1966 and is one of 12 at the university.

The university itself was founded in 1960 under Nikita Khrushchev and was once a showcase university, where students from poorer nations could receive a subsidized education. When the Soviet Union collapsed, the university was renamed but its buildings have since fallen into disrepair.

The university continues to offer a wide range of courses, as evidenced by its website, and has an annual student population of about 10,000 from more than 114 countries.
The dead and injured students were from China, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Angola, Ivory Coast, Tahiti, Morocco, Kazakhstan, Dominican Republic, Lebanon, Peru, Malaysia, Mongolia, India, Nigeria, Tanzania, Sri Lanka and Palestine. One of the two emergency stairways out of the hostels was kept permanently shut, survivors said. - AFP and BBC News

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