The United States has welcomed President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s announcement in Parliament that the Emergency Regulations will lapse at the end of August.

The United States said further that this is a significant step towards normalizing life for the people of Sri Lanka, and reflects more than two years without terrorist activity after the defeat of the LTTE.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa proposed to the Parliament yesterday (25) that the emergency regulations need to be repealed. “I am satisfied with the fact that there is no need to extend emergency regulations for the administrative activities of the country now”, he noted while making this proposal. The country can function democratically under the ordinary law, he further said.