Sri Lanka parliament extends emergency state

COLOMBO/SINGAPORE－Sri Lanka's parliament approved the extension of a state of emergency for a month on Wednesday, a lawmaker said, in a bid to get a grip on a political and economic crisis that has forced a change of leadership.

Acting president Ranil Wickremesinghe at the time had declared a state of emergency on July 17. It allows the military to be given powers to detain people, limit public gatherings and search private property.

The extension means it will continue for a month before it must be approved again, the lawmaker said.

Wickremesinghe won a parliamentary vote to become president three days after he declared the emergency, and a week after former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country and resigned from the post in the face of widespread protests.

Ruling party members who back Wickremesinghe said while protests were reasonable at the beginning of the crisis, groups that do not believe in parliamentary democracy and want to capture power through unconstitutional means had infiltrated the demonstrators and were creating disturbance.

Opposition parties criticized the emergency as a government move to stifle different voices.

Within a day of Wickremesinghe's election, the military dismantled the camps the protesters had set up for more than 100 days opposite the president's office. Some protesters were beaten up.

Courts issued travel bans against six protest leaders and some were arrested by the police.

The country of 22 million people has been crippled by an economic crisis, with shortages of fuel, food and other necessities.

The protests, which culminated with crowds swarming into the official presidential residence before Rajapaksa fled on July 13, have largely fizzled out.

Also on Wednesday, Rajapaksa was granted permission to stay a further 14 days in Singapore, where he landed two weeks ago via Maldives. The extension will last until Aug 11.

Singapore's immigration authority did not respond to a request for confirmation of the move. The Singaporean government said he had not been granted asylum, but was in the country on a private visit.

Agencies - Xinhua