Sri Lankan introduces new 'anti-terror' legislation

South Asia

31 August 2011 Last updated at 13:41 ET Emergency laws have been in place for much of the last three decades

The Sri Lankan government has introduced new legislation allowing it to continue holding terror suspects without charge.The move came as the country’s controversial emergency laws were brought to an end on Tuesday night.The laws - which were first introduced in 1971 - were reintroduced during the war against Tamil Tiger rebels.
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The Rajapakse way

Sep 01, 2011

To most Sri Lankans, Anna Hazare’s name would be unfamiliar, his Jan Lokpal Bill even more so. But the veteran social activist’s marathon fast did have an (unintended) effect on Sri Lanka.

India’s preoccupation with the Hazare crisis turned the much-hyped discussion of the Lankan issue in the Rajya Sabha into a damp squib. In the electric atmosphere of the fast, the problems of Lankan Tamils would have seemed rather distant and insignificant to most Indian parliamentarians.

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