Sri Lanka extends state of emergency
7 Jul 2009, 1908 hrs IST, AP
Source: TOI
COLOMBO: Sri Lanka's parliament extended a state of emergency on Tuesday as the government seeks to eliminate the remnants of the Tamil rebel
force some two months after declaring an end to a decades-long civil war.
The measures, which will in place for another month, gives the military and police wide-ranging powers to arrest terrorist suspects and detain them indefinitely. It has been in place for much of the past 30 years while government troops fought the Tamil insurgents.
The government declared in May that its forces had crushed the rebel group, killing it's leader Velupillai Prabhakaran and many of his top commanders, to end the decades-long war. The Tamil Tigers began fighting in 1983 for a separate homeland for Sri Lanka's minority Tamil population.
Defense spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella said the emergency powers were still needed so government forces could eliminate any remaining Tamil rebels, who could still present a threat.
``Although the ground level war is over, there are remnants of terrorism,'' he said.
The US and EU listed the Tamil Tiger rebels as terrorists for some years, and Sri Lanka's government presented the fight against separatism as part of the global war on terror.
Source: TOI
COLOMBO: Sri Lanka's parliament extended a state of emergency on Tuesday as the government seeks to eliminate the remnants of the Tamil rebel
force some two months after declaring an end to a decades-long civil war.
The measures, which will in place for another month, gives the military and police wide-ranging powers to arrest terrorist suspects and detain them indefinitely. It has been in place for much of the past 30 years while government troops fought the Tamil insurgents.
The government declared in May that its forces had crushed the rebel group, killing it's leader Velupillai Prabhakaran and many of his top commanders, to end the decades-long war. The Tamil Tigers began fighting in 1983 for a separate homeland for Sri Lanka's minority Tamil population.
Defense spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella said the emergency powers were still needed so government forces could eliminate any remaining Tamil rebels, who could still present a threat.
``Although the ground level war is over, there are remnants of terrorism,'' he said.
The US and EU listed the Tamil Tiger rebels as terrorists for some years, and Sri Lanka's government presented the fight against separatism as part of the global war on terror.
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