Sri Lanka extends Emergency Regulations

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 August 2000, 12:50 GMT]
Sri Lankan parliament extended the Emergency Regulations for further one month on Wednesday. 117 MPs of the 225 member-parliament voted in favour of the extension and 7 voted against. The main opposition, United National Party (UNP) parliamentarians abstained from voting.

Parliamentarians belonging to EPDP, Ceylon Workers Congress and UNP Alternative Group voted with the government. Parliamentarians of TULF, JVP and TELO voted against the extension.

The Deputy Minister of Defense, General Anuruddha Ratwatte, told Parliament that while the government was engaged in constitutional activities the military should be strengthened.

"Strengthening of the military would be seen shortly" declared General Ratwatte winding up the debate.

The Sri Lankan parliament also voted for defence spending to be increased by another 28 billion rupees, which will have the effect of defence expenditure over shooting the budget by more than 50%.