Govt. mulling changes to PTA
By Dhaneshi Yatawara & Rukshana Rizwie
The government is seriously looking to introduce far reaching changes
to the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA).
A senior legal expert who wished to remain anonymous, said although
the government was serious about changing the much maligned Act, no
specific decisions have been made as to whether the Act should be
repealed, amended or replaced.
He said the need to change the PTA had been long acknowledged and
there had been discussions among relevant government authorities on the
issue.
Since the end of the war in 2009, political and civil society groups
have stressing on the need to repeal the PTA, and have been critical of
the former government's use of the Act to detain innocent civilians.
The PTA was a temporary provisions act introduced in 1979 under the
J. R. Jayewardene presidency to control the terrorist insurgencies that
were escalating at that time, and was made permanent in 1982.
Secretary Ministry of Defence, Karunasena Hettiarachchi, in an
interview with the Sunday Observer (see page 4) admitted the PTA need to
be revisited, although there were certain security conditions that
require provisions in the Act, but not the Act its total context. "The
situation of the country has changed therefore what is necessary may not
be the existing PTA but an altered or amended version of it," he
explained. Meanwhile, Oosition Leader R. Sampanthan speaking to the
Sunday Observer urged the government to release Tamil prisoners and
repeal the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) as mandated by the UN Human
Rights Council.
"One of the recommendations put forth by the UNHRC was to repeal the
PTA and laws under which these Tamil prisoners are detained," he said.
"While I am acting on behalf of the estranged families, I don't think
many in the government see it the same way."
He said that if the government was keen on advancing reconciliation,
the PTA must be repealed or replaced with a bill that was would be valid
in a post-war climate.
The Opposition leader added that the Prime Minister has assured that
32 Tamil prisoners will be released by Monday (9) while another 30
inmates would be released as a second batch before the 20th of this
month. The Opposition Leader said the decision was reached by a
committee appointed by the Prime Minister comprising Cabinet Ministers.
"I met with the President on Friday and urged him to consider
granting a presidential pardon to the remaining prisoners, to which he
said he would look into it." He added. The Ministerial Committee would
be appointed to look into the possibility of releasing 106 prisoners
whose cases are still pending. |