Sri Lanka proposed Tuesday to withdraw parts of its wartime emergency law, nearly one year after its troops defeated ethnic Tamil rebels to end a 25-year civil war, AP reported. External Affairs Minister Gamini Peiris told Parliament that the government wants to withdraw a number of provisions in the law that he deemed «redundant.» According to a government document, it has proposed to repeal 36 of the 73 regulations found in the law. They include the banning of propaganda supportive of a terrorist cause; allowing security forces to confiscate property from people involved in terrorist activities; exempting security forces from the law in certain circumstances; banning of public rallies by a presidential order and spreading rumor; publishing details of terrorist investigations or military activity; and taking photographs of military-sensitive areas. «We are today in a position to dispense with a vast majority of the emergency law,» Peiris said. -- SPA
