Will study proposed anti-terrorism act, Ranil assures Tamil parties

COLOMBO: Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe on Tuesday assured the Tamil parties that the proposed anti-terrorism law would be reviewed, amid stiff resistance from the opposition parties as well as the minority communities against the act that would replace a draconian counter-terrorism law.

The Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) will replace the much-maligned Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) of 1979, which was introduced as a temporary arrangement to counter the campaign of separatist violence by the Tamil minority militant groups in 1979.

During a meeting with the Tamil minority parties ahead of his first official vis- it to India after becoming the president of the cash-strapped nation, Wickremesinghe informed the drafting committee would review and re-gazette the bill, a press release from the President’s Office said.

The bill was seen as even more draconian than the PTA, which was used as the main tool to crush the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam’s (LTTE) armed separatist campaign for a separate Tamil homeland in the northern and eastern provinces of the island nation for nearly 30 years.

In 2021, the EU Parliament adopted a resolution calling for a repeal of the PTA-- the action was linked to the continuation of the Generalised System of Preference (GSP) + trade concession for Sri Lankan exports.

The parties were also informed of the setting up of an interim secretariat for the truth-seeking mechnism to probe rights abuses by the army during the civil war with the LTTE. The setting up of a truth-seeking mechanism after the end of the nearly 30-year armed campaign was seen as a major reconciliatory action.