State of Emergency extended

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 November 2000, 16:07 GMT]
A motion extending the state of emergency by a further month was approved in Parliament Thursday by a majority of 98 votes. 113 parliamentarians of the ruling Peoples' Alliance voted for the motion. 15 voted against it. MPs of the TULF, JVP, TELO and the All Ceylon Tamil Congress voted against the motion.

Parliamentarians of the United national Party and Sihala Urumaya abstained from voting.

Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake moved the motion extending the state of emergency for another month.

All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC) Parliamentarian Appathurai Vinayagamoorthy said that the Liberation Tigers should be recognized as the sole representative of the Tamil people. A dialogue with the LTTE was compulsory for the resolution of the northeast conflict. The foundation for the fresh talks with the LTTE should be similar to those at the Thimpu summit, Vinayagamoorthy added.

Sihala Urumaya parliamentarian Tilak Karunaratne said he was totally against any dialogue with the LTTE. He added that the "LTTE terrorism should be eliminated through military means".