Sri Lankan students held

Sri Lankan students held

COLOMBO (Reuters): The Sri Lankan army has detained nine university students in northern Jaffna amid a campaign to push the government to match a unilateral ceasefire declared by Tamil separatists, the government said on Monday.

The detentions come before a proposed rally in Jaffna city on Wednesday, at which students said they planned to pressure the government to agree to a ceasefire called last month by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

A government statement said the students were taken into custody on Saturday about eight km north of Jaffna "whilst pasting posters and distributing printed material pressurising the government to declare a ceasefire on the LTTE".

Under Sri Lanka's tough emergency regulations, in force almost continually since the war started in 1983, police and the military have wide powers of arrest and detention.