JAFFNA: Massive protests were held in the north and East agains the arrests of IUSF students under PTA on Saturday,August 20.
In an appeal to the president , a press release issued for the occasion stated here : “ We the human rights defenders, civil society organizations and women’s organizations of North and East Sri-Lanka come together and make our open appeal to your Excellency related to the IUSF student protestors and other civil society activists who have been arrested and detained since 18th August 2022.
Freedom of assembly and freedom of speech are constitutionally guaranteed rights. IUSF student activists and civil society activists only exercised their rights to express their demands to the fellow country people and to the government. There is no evidence that they have engaged in violence. Trade union activism and public protests are not terrorist activities. IUSF student activists haven’t done any thing related to
terrorism.
Therefore, we appeal your Excellency not to detain the ISUF student activists under PTA.
In Sri-Lanka, the President of the country is the Minister of Defense and therefore the President has authority to grant detention order to detain anyone under PTA. We plea your Excellency not to place your signature in the detention order of student activists under the PTA.
We the minority Tamils of North and East of Sri-Lanka are still experiencing the inhumane treatment of the draconian law PTA and we have firsthand experience of the barbaric nature of PTA. Innocent Tamil youth who had been arrested in their teens spent 30 – 40 years in prisons and some of them passed away inside the prison cells without seeing the daylight.
We minority people of this country do not want any one of this country to be trialed under PTA anymore.
We also appeal your Excellency to release all peaceful protestors immediately.
North – East Coordinating Committee Sri-Lanka.”
