The government has already taken measures to revoke the emergency regulations in the near future, after consulting the Security Council, said Prime Minister D. M. Jayaratne at the Parliament yesterday (August 9). He said that the government is taking measures to move the necessary motions in the Parliament without delay.

The Premier was presenting a motion to extend the State of Emergency by another one month. He stated that the emergency regulations imposed on August 13 and continued thereafter were downsized by a gazette notification on May 02, 2010. With this, several clauses of the State of Emergency were annulled while many of the other clauses were amended for the public welfare, following the elimination of LTTE terrorism on May 19, 2009. Since then, the State of Emergency was extended to maintain national security and public security, he added.

Moving on to the recently held Local Government elections, the Premier stressed the significance of the fact that the people in the North used their vote after 30 years to contribute to establishing democracy in the country.

It was a clear indication that they have understood that nothing would be gained by means of terrorism. Even though certain groups attempted to claim that this election was unfair, the public kept their trust in the government and enabled it to “secure a resounding victory”, he said. 8,491 former LTTE combatants have been integrated into society after rehabilitation, while another 3,173 who are currently being rehabilitated will be reintegrated into society soon, he added.

Despite the fact that the “LTTE terrorism is eliminated from our soil, certain pro-LTTE groups are attempting to breathe new life into the outfit operating from overseas… Father S.J. Emmanuel of Global Tamil Forum, V. Rudrakumaran of Transitional Government of Tamil Eelam, Suren Sevendran of British Tamil Forum and Nediyaran faction of Tamil National Council are trying to tarnish the image of the government”, he said.

Hostile forces against Sri Lanka used the Channel 4 video with the same objectives, and it will be countered by the Report published by the Defence Ministry, he said.
He also said that the Security Forces are still recovering hauls of weapons hidden by the LTTE and, investigations are still in progress to arrest former-LTTE cardres who had fled from the North during the Humanitarian Operation.