The President has used his executive powers to extend the state of emergency for a period of one month subjected to the approval of the parliament within 10 days. The aim of reconvening the parliament is approving the extension of emergency.
Sri Lanka is under state of emergency since decades due to the war with the Tamil Tiger rebels. The emergency regulations provide sweeping authorities to police and security forces to interfere in the rights of the citizens.
The government has decided to maintain the emergency regulations further covering to the argument that the Tamil Tiger rebels that were defeated militarily last year might attempt a comeback if the security grip was loosened.
The Prime Minister Rathnasiri Wickramanayaka recently said that several suicide cadres of the Tamil Tiger organization are in Colombo. Police arrested a Tiger financial affairs activist this week.
Peace that prevails after May 18, the day the Tamil Tiger leader Velupillai Prabakaran was killed, seems uncomfortable to the government. The government needs some kind of tension to rationalize the maintaining of draconian laws such as emergency regulations and Prevention of Terrorism Act.
Government needs these draconian laws to suppress unrest. Thousands of Tamil youth are still in custody without urgent legal action thanks to these laws.
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