JVP to vote against emergency extension

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 September 2009, 04:55 GMT]
The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) has decided to vote against the Emergency Regulations in Parliament as the government has used it to suppress the media, the trade unions and oppress opponents, Colombo media reports said quoting parliamentarian K. D. Lal Kantha, trade union leader of the party Wednesday.

"Now that terrorism is wiped out, there is no necessity to continue the State of Emergency in the country. Besides the government has been implementing the Emergency Regulations and the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) to suppress the media and harass people from expressing their dissenting views," Mr. Lal Kantha said.

The country had witnessed the killing of more than a dozen media personnel in the last three years and arrest and imprisonment of media personnel under the Emergency Regulations and the PTA, he said.