US, India appreciate Sri Lanka's removal of wartime laws

India and Western nations on Friday praised Sri Lanka's lifting of tough wartime emergency laws but an opposition party said it was merely a ploy because the government still has the power Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) at its disposal.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa lifted the emergency laws on Thursday, saying they were unnecessary after the two years of peace Sri Lanka has enjoyed since his government defeated the Tamil Tiger separatists in a 25-year civil war.

Immediately after the war, the government resisted pressure from ally India and Western nations to lift the laws, which gave the government the power to arrest people without charge.

Rajapaksa's administration has rejected criticism the laws were used to silence political opponents.

"This, in our view, is a welcome step," Indian External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna told India's parliament on Friday. "We hope that this will be followed by effective steps leading to genuine national reconciliation in the country."

Britain, Australia and the United States also welcomed the decision. All three countries had pushed Sri Lanka to drop the laws, saying it would help ethno-political reconciliation after a three-decade civil war fought on ethnic lines.

"This is a significant step towards normalizing life for the people of Sri Lanka," the U.S. embassy in Colombo said in a statement.

Sri Lanka still remains heavily militarised, with some checkpoints in place across the country and many soldiers out on the streets, especially in the former war zone in the north.

The opposition Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, a Marxist party that fell out with Rajapaksa, said the PTA's existence meant democracy was still at risk.

"The government should abolish PTA immediately. It has given extraordinary power to the government and military, superceding the normal civil laws," JVP legislator Anura Kumara Dissanayaka told reporters.