AJITH SIRIWARDANA 
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Counter-terrorism law to replace PTA: Ranil
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said the first draft of the counter-terrorism law which would be placed in the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), would be available for discussion by next week, New Zealand media reported.
"I think by next week the first draft of the counter-terrorism law, which will be placed in the Prevention of Terrorism Act, will be available for discussion," he said.
He said the Sri Lankan government was going through most of the things it had promised to achieve, including setting up a missing persons office.
Prime Minister Wickremesinghe hopes by next March all these things will be behind Sri Lanka. He said it's a quite open society these days, where fear is no longer a factor.
He said the country was cleaning up its act when it comes to human rights abuses.
He and Prime Minister John Key had formal talks at Government House in Auckland today.
Amnesty International had pressured Key to discuss human rights with Wickremesinghe during the talks, pointing out that Sir Lankan security forces have been implicated in tens of thousands of disappearances.
Executive director of Amnesty New Zealand Grant Bayldon said he wants Key to push for Sri Lanka to repeal its Prevention of Terrorism Act which "is basically a license to abduct and torture people."
"It also needs a law to make disappearances illegal, and it needs to work much harder to investigate those disappearances," Bayldon said.
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