Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa announced the end of the country’s 28-year state of emergency Thursday, saying the country had not experienced a single act of terrorism since the end of a savage civil war in 2009. The President said that there was no need to maintain an emergency as security in the country has now been consolidated. The emergency regulations were continually imposed since the assassination of Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar in August 2005 by the Tamil Tiger terrorists.

The state of emergency is to expire in 10 days of August. The government affirmed that the President shall not ask the Parliament to extend the rule, which had been in force since 1983. “To carry forward the day-to-day activities in a democratic way, I propose there is no need of emergency regulations anymore,”

Press and Information Officer, U.S. Embassy to Sri Lanka and the Maldives, Christopher Elms in a press release stated that the US welcomed the move. “This is a significant step towards normalizing life for the people of Sri Lanka, and reflects more than two years without terrorist activity after the defeat of the LTTE,” it stated.

It may be noted that for several decades Sri Lanka had experienced a series of internal armed conflicts between successive governments and forces of the LTTE fighting for an independent Tamil homeland in the northeast of the country. During this time both sides had committed gross violations of human rights and humanitarian law, including massacres, extrajudicial killings, and enforced disappearances. Considering the barbaric acts, the state of emergency was declared.