Condemning the on-going detention of Jaffna University students, the US based human rights organisation, HRW, called on the Sri Lankan government to "immediately release" or "credibly charge" the detained students.

HRW's Asia director, Brad Adams said:

“Arresting four students without charge and sending them off for ‘rehabilitation’ sends a dangerous message that any Tamil can be detained arbitrarily and indefinitely.”

“The Sri Lankan authorities should realize that such actions generate legitimate grievances, not reconciliation.”

“The Sri Lankan government needs to recognize that engaging in peaceful activities that conflict with the government’s views is an exercise of basic rights, not a criminal offense,”

“The four students should be promptly released unless the government has evidence they violated the law and charges them.”

See here for full statement, extracts reproduced below:

The students’ parents were initially denied access to their children, but were allowed to visit them at Welikanda on December 12. The parents said publicly that the students were being interrogated intensely, with efforts to intimidate them into providing information about other students.

The government has neither accounted for the arrests by specifying what terrorist activities the students have allegedly been involved in nor brought charges against the students. The students were told that they will be detained until they have completed a 3-month lecture series on the theme of “reconciliation,” the parents said.