Sri Lanka's former foreign minister GL Peiris has warned of the "dangers" of amending the controversial /Prevention of Terrorism Act.
Speaking to media in Colombo on Monday, the former minister accused the government of buckling under pressure from the Global Tamil Forum and the Tamil National Alliance.
The former minister said the government would amend the act first, as an initial step to repeal the PTA in full, in order to implement pledges made to the TNA.
Mr Peiris claimed that the remaining 235 political detainees were all responsible for acts of terrorism, adding that former president Mahinda Rajapaksa's government had rehabilitated and released around 12,000 former LTTE members.
These particular individuals were continued to be detained as they could not be rehabilitated, he said.
Mr Peiris also said the TNA had invited visiting Australian Foreign Minister to send their judges to an international court in Sri Lanka to investigate alleged war crimes.
"As the joint Opposition, we ask TNA MP M. A. Sumanthiran whether they had any right to ask for foreign judges to come to Sri Lanka," he said.
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