09/05/2011
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Lanka Standard
The Emergency is dead. Long live the Emergency Consequential Provisional Bill. By TISARANEE GUNASEKARA
09/03/2011
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The Economist
MAHINDA RAJAPAKSA, Sri Lanka’s president, did not tell his ministers why he required them to attend parliament on August 25th. But an Indian newspaper put them out of their misery, breaking the news online that he was going to announce a lifting of Sri Lanka’s state of emergency. And yet, when he strode into the assembly carrying a sheaf of papers, even members of his own benches craned their necks to sneak a glance at what they contained.
09/01/2011
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Associated Press
Sri Lanka will continue to detain hundreds of terror suspects and outlaw the defeated rebel Tamil Tiger group despite wartime state of emergency laws being lifted, an official said Thursday.
09/01/2011
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Reuters
COLOMBO, Sept 1 (Reuters) - In late August, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa lifted the strict wartime emergency laws that drew criticism from the West and India, saying peace since the end of civil war in 2009 made them unnecessary.
Following are the key political risks to watch.
08/31/2011
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BBC
The Sri Lankan government introduces new legislation allowing it to continue holding terror suspects without charge.
08/30/2011
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www.voanews.com
In Sri Lanka, which has emerged out of a long drawn out armed separatist conflict, a state of emergency will be lifted after 28 years. But critics question whether ending wartime restrictions will improve the human rights situation in the island nation.
08/30/2011
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The Hindu
EDITORIAL Sri Lanka's decision to lift the Emergency regulations, as announced by President Mahinda Rajapaksa in Parliament last week, is a step towards creating a positive environment for national reconciliation. The regulations rode on powers granted to government under the 1947 Public Security Ordinance. They have remained almost continuously in force since the 1971 Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna insurgency in southern Sri Lanka, through the years of the armed Tamil militancy in the North and the East. But there was never any real justification for retaining them after the LTTE's military defeat in 2009. The broad sweep and vague language of the regulations struck fear among the Tamil minority, and curtailed the freedoms of all Sri Lankans. Over the years, and especially after the LTTE's assassination of Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar in 2005 until the end of the war, the government introduced a welter of overlapping regulations arming security personnel with wide and arbitrary powers to search, detain, and arrest people for “terrorism,” which itself was not clearly defined. Draconian in their scope, the regulations undermined the freedom of speech, expression, and movement. The monthly approval needed from Parliament for their extension was an insufficient cover. With the immunity they provided to officials, the instances of misuse were many, especially in the Tamil-dominated areas of Sri Lanka.
08/30/2011
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Voice of America
In Sri Lanka, which has emerged out of a long drawn out armed separatist conflict, a state of emergency will be lifted after 28 years. But critics question whether ending wartime restrictions will improve the human rights situation in the island nation.
08/26/2011
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Reuters
(Reuters) - India and Western nations on Friday praised Sri Lanka's lifting of tough wartime emergency laws but an opposition party said it was merely a ploy because the government still has the power Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) at its disposal.
08/26/2011
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Reuters
* Britain, Australia also praise lifting of emergency
* Opposition JVP says not enough
* Anti-terrorism law still in place