The Sri Lankan authorities’ decision to pass a new anti-terror law was criticized by Cardinal Malcolm Ranjit of the country’s capital Colombo, saying it is aimed at silencing critics and suppressing popular protests. This was reported on April 5 by UCA News.
The 75-year-old cardinal called the bill a total violation of international human rights law and called on all the people of the country to oppose it.
“Limits freedom of expression”Ranjit, adding that the government seeks to silence its critics by intimidating them.
The new bill provides for severe penalties, including the death penalty, for alleged terrorist offences.
“The death penalty is being abandoned all over the world, but the government [Шри-Ланки] included the death penalty in the bill”, stressed the cleric.
“If the president wants, he can even ban a political party through a new bill. The bill is being introduced to control protests in general.” He is sure.
The bill empowers the police to arrest people without a warrant and gives the president the power to issue ordinances.
Remember that on March 22, the Sri Lankan government published a 97-page anti-terrorism bill, which replaced the Prevention of Terrorism Act of 1979.
The document was adopted to help the government deal with a 30-year civil war that ended in 2009. Successive governments have used the law to quell unrest among peasants in the southern part of the country that has caused thousands of deaths.
The European Union, the United States and the international human rights organization Amnesty International have called on the government not to apply the terrorism law against protesters and to repeal the already draconian anti-terrorism law.
Facing massive increases in taxes, electricity and water bills, and skyrocketing inflation, Sri Lankans will now have to put up with tougher government-imposed austerity measures.
The government has already hinted at the privatization of state companies and the elimination of thousands of state jobs.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe has already called those protesting his austerity measures “fascists” and “terrorists”.
Source: Rossa Primavera
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