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Sri Lankan Parliament reconvenes to extend emergency

COLOMBO: The Sri Lankan Parliament, which had been dissolved, was reconvened for a short while on Tuesday to extend emergency laws by another month.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa had earlier signed a proclamation extending the emergency. The validity of the emergency regulations extended by Parliament, which was dissolved on February 10 in the run up to the general election scheduled on April 8, expired on March 1.

Emergency laws can be passed only by Parliament and are valid only for one month. Any presidential proclamation extending emergency laws is subject to approval by Parliament.

On Tuesday, the state of emergency was extended with 93 votes in support and 24 against. The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, the United National Party and the Tamil National Alliance voted against the extension of emergency.

Emergency laws in the island nation were re-imposed after the assassination of the then Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar by suspected cadres of the LTTE in the first half of August 2005. Since then the emergency laws and regulations have been extended by the Parliament on a monthly basis.

Since the military defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in May last year, influential sections of the opposition parties have been questioning the rationale of the government in extending the emergency laws.

“Still required”

The government on its part has argued that the laws were still required as the security forces are still engaged in “operational activities” to prevent the re-emergence of terrorist and secessionist forces. The former Army Chief and the combined opposition nominee in the just- concluded presidential election, Sarath Fonseka, in the course of his election campaign had agreed to consider the demand of most of the opposition parties to repeal the emergency laws.

Indications are Parliament might have to meet again before the scheduled date of April 22 if the government is of the view that letting the emergency laws lapse even for a few days could be detrimental to the interests of the nation.

Meanwhile, the Sri Lanka Country Director of USAID and Sri Lanka's Commissioner General for Rehabilitation handed over equipment to help over 550 former Tamil Tiger combatants to get new civilian jobs in eastern Sri Lanka.

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