22nd February 1998

"Occupational hazard"of a Defence Columnist's family

By Roshan Peiris

The house bore the mood of sullen quiet- ness that had wrapped around those within. It was the home of Iqbal Athas, Consultant Editor and Defence Correspondent of The Sunday Times. Last Thursday, February 12, unwelcome visitors chose to come prowling into his three storied house at Udahamulla.

While Iqbal, his wife and child were watching T.V. on the top floor, intruders terrorised the maid who had opened the back door when she heard the intruders assault the male servant who had been to a boutique close by to buy himself some medicine.

They had asked him the whereabouts of his master and when he said he did not know, the answer was a brutal attack on his stomach. Then they left him to concentrate on the 21 year old female domestic at whom they pointed a gun, asking the same question.

Iqbal's wife Anoma said, "I shiver when I think that five of them had the brass to prowl around our house, take the back door padlock and carry away a hand telephone."

"They marched upstairs and I could only wonder what merited all these armed men coming to my husband and saying "Umba ke gavvoth umbe eta okkoma kadanawa" (If you shout we will break all your bones). They obviously meant it," said Anoma her eyes glistening with tears, because they held guns at his chest and his forehead.

"Next some of them strolled into a room (by then the number had increased) and found my little daughter getting ready for her nightly bath before bed.

"On seeing these fearsome strangers she came screaming to us and her little face puckered with tears as she saw that her father had guns pointed at him. She clung to him with childish tenaciousness."

Anoma said, "Iqbal was asked to leave and come downstairs with them at gun point."

"I thought it was the end of all three of us. My thoughts kept wondering as to what we had done. Of course Iqbal as a Defence Correspondent writes what he has to."

Daughter Jasmin, just seven years old, delicate as the flower, was terrified. She is a Year Two student at a school in Nugegoda, happy with her friends and her dolls but now she has lost all zest. After all, the trauma of seeing her father being threatened at gunpoint has to have its impact on the child.

A child who went to bed by 9 p.m generally now refuses to sleep. With much cajoling, she finally goes to bed around ten in the night. But she keeps waking intermittently, restless even in her sleep," said Anoma.

"I am not surprised since I get up at all hours in the night and early in the mornings when I hear the slightest noise and I am haunted by the thought as to whether we will be once again surrounded by trigger happy men. The domestics refuse to sleep in their rooms and keep asking me, not will they come again, but when will they come. They all troop upstairs to sleep. My mother lives next door and she was so terrified by all this that she could barely walk.

"I think our nerves collectively will be affected for a long time," Anoma added.

"They kept coming back on that fatal night. The high ranking Police official Iqbal contacted said a patrol car would arrive every half hour but there was none. The intruders came again. But tell me how long are we to live with guards? That itself is abnormal. Is this the sort of life one has to lead?"

Dr R. Kulanayagam, one of the country's well known psychiatrists who now after retirement is still a consultant at the National Hospital spoke to The Sunday Times on what effect such an experience could have on a child. "The child will at present and the near future be cast under what is termed post traumatic stress. She may get worse or may improve. This sort of experience on a child is usually long lasting. Adults find it difficult to cope with such stress so then what can you expect of a seven year old little child?"

"Her screaming at night is because she is in a state of anxiety which is typical of post traumatic stress. In later years other unwholesome situations, may reawaken the anxiety and stress she now suffers. She may recall and re-experience it all. I think the parents should seek some sort of medical assistance for the traumatic stress the child has so obviously suffered," he said

Another child psychiatrist attached to the National Hospital and the Ridgeway Hospital for children advised that both the parents and the child should seek medical help to overcome the trauma.

"If the child is to recover from this grave trauma of seeing guns held at her father, both parents must see a psychiatrist with the child. This is the only way to settle the child. One must remember that the child was frightened and unable to comprehend what exactly had happened. This frightened effect will last for sometime and the child will resist being left alone and will want to keep clinging to the parents. I won't say the damage to the child's psyche is permanent, but how soon she will recover will depend on how soon the environment around her settles. This is why the parents too need counselling. They must overcome their own anxieties and try to settle down. The child's recovery will depend on how soon the parents too can adjust and show the child that everything is back to normal. This is the only way to settle a traumatised child," concluded the child psychiatrist.

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