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was serious about changing the much maligned Act, no specific decisions have been made as to whether the Act should be repealed, amended or replaced.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He said that if the government was keen on advancing reconciliation, the PTA must be repealed or replaced with a bill that was would be valid in a post-war climate.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.