Even now, I don't understand the comparison because in my point of view you are posting about two completely different settings: a war and a social protest, terrorists and a young social class which is not protected by State (of course, as always happens, in this group there are also idiots and violent people), 5 days and... how much? More or less 30 years?.
I'm a pacifist so I don't like to measure the seriousness of human rights violation, because human rights don't have to be infringed in any case.
But... no there is not but, I agree with you about human rights.
Think about it... It's like when Akmadinejad (or Zimbabwe's dictator, Robert Mugabe, or the chinese Huanqiu Shibao) criticized UK for inhuman and violent repression: you know... in english we say "he talks the talk, but doesn't walk the walk".

A country has to respect human rights, independently of what other countries do.
I know that UK is one of most liberal and easygoing country of Europe; in those days the government has taken extraordinary measures which are not usual for a state such as UK is (the use of water cannons and plastic bullets). Ok... well, PLASTIC bullets and WATER cannons! This is what Cameron defined "hard line". Nothing compared to what happened in Genoa (Italy) during 2001 G8.
This doesn't mean that i'm on Cameron's side, on the contraryI hate him and his politic view/line.
This comparison is too simple to explain the complexity of what has happened in UK
I don't know what SL government has done, but here in Europe each country recommended to their citizens not to go to London.
I think that Europe, after II world war, can understand SL's tragedy much more than Sri Lankans think.
http://en.peacereporter.net/articolo/29932/Disenfranchised+in+LondonThis is just my modest opinion... people has freedom of thought, also this is a human right
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6815885.ece ...maybe not everywhere.

Anyway, thank you Amnesty International for his release!
Sri Lanka has still a long way to go, pardon, World has still a long way to go in regard to human rights, tolerance and open mentality.
Don't make comparisons, make the difference.
