Its public activities as a constituent part of university life came to a standstill after the assassination on September 21, 1989 of Rajini Thiranagama, a key founding member, for which the group blamed the LTTE.
Brian Senewiratne, a Sinhalese advocate of Tamil Eelam who had written the foreword to its book "The Broken Palmyra", alleged that the group "has changed to simply being virulently anti-LTTE," and that the Sri Lankan government was using its reports to cover up human rights violations.
[10] The University of Jaffna, where the UTHR(J) was formed, has repeatedly disclaimed any connection with the group and published a letter in 1996 dismissing its reports on the LTTE as being "based on hearsay".
Tamil diaspora activists and organizations have also accused the UTHR(J) of having an anti-LTTE bias and of praising Sri Lankan Army officers involved in human rights abuses.
[13] In April 2006, echoing the Sri Lankan government's allegations, the UTHR released a report accusing the LTTE of having staged the abduction of seven TRO employees in order to implicate the pro-government TMVP and force the paramilitary issue to the forefront of the upcoming Geneva talks.