Monday, November 29, 1999

Sri Lanka to relax state of emergency

News posted by www.newsinfoline.com

Colombo, May 4 (DPA) Sri Lanka's government will ease the state of emergency that existed during decades of conflict with Tamil rebels, External Affairs Minister G.L. Peiris told Parliament Tuesday.The special powers allowing security forces to enter and search private premises without a court order, and a regulation requiring property owners to provide police with information about tenants and residents would be curtailed, he said.'Such steps were necessary to curb terrorist activities, but they are no longer necessary,' Peiris said.'However there cannot be a wholesale lifting of the emergency regulations. It will be done part by part,' the minister said.He made the announcement during a two-day debate in Parliament on the state of emergency during the war against Tamil rebels of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The government won militarily in May 2009.Laws prohibiting public gatherings would also be lifted, he said.Emergency regulations were in force since the beginning of the civil war 1983. They were lifted during a ceasefire in 2002, but reimposed after the rebels assassinated then-foreign minister Lakshman Kadirgamar in August 2005.The state of emergency has been extended in Parliament every month, keeping with a constitutional requirement.

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