Emergency extended for another month in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 September 2006, 21:46 GMT]
Sri Lanka's parliament Tuesday adopted a motion of extending the State of Emergency for another month by a majority of 99 votes. 108 members including the ruling United peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA), main opposition United National Party (UNP), Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), all monks' party Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) and other constituent parties of the government voted for the motion. Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians voted against.

The State of Emergency was declared on August 13th last year following the assassination of Mr.Lakshman Kadirgamar, Foreign Minister on August 12 late in the night. Since then the State of Emergency is being extended monthly, sources said.

Mr.Ratnasiri Wickremanayake, Prime Minister and Deputy Defence Minister introduced the extension motion. He said with the capture of Sampoor the morale of the State armed forces has been boosted.

Mr.K.Thurairatnasingham, TNA parliamentarian said government should take concrete steps immediately to stop killing, abduction and intimidation of innocent Tamil civilians in the North East.

UNP parliamentarian Mr.John Amaratunge urged the government to stop abduction of Tamil businessmen and extortion in Colombo.

JVP parliamentarian Mr.Wimal Weerawanse said the capture of Sampoor has proved that the Sri Lanka Army could defeat the LTTE in a military operation. He wanted the government to abrogate the ceasefire agreement immediately as its continuance would demoralise the armed forces.