- Thousands of protesters storm the president’s home and office
- Protesters, outraged by the economic crisis, are demanding the resignation of the president
- The prime minister convenes an emergency meeting of party leaders
- At least 39 people were injured in the protests
COLOMBO, July 9 (Reuters) – Thousands of protesters in Sri Lanka’s commercial capital, Colombo, stormed the official residence of the president and his secretariat on Saturday amid months of growing public anger over the country’s worst economic crisis in seven decades.
Protesters, with Sri Lankan flags and helmets, stormed the president’s residence, according to video footage from local television news channel NewsFirst.
Thousands of people also broke down the doors of the presidential secretariat in front of the sea and the Ministry of Finance, which has been the site of a protest for months, and entered the premises, showed television images.
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Military personnel and police from both locations were unable to contain the crowd as they chanted slogans calling for President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to resign.
Two Defense Ministry sources said President Rajapaksa was expelled from official residence on Friday for his safety ahead of the rally scheduled for the weekend.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe convened an emergency meeting of party leaders on Saturday to discuss the situation and reach a speedy solution, his office said in a statement.
He has asked the president to convene parliament, according to the statement.
Wickremesinghe has also been moved to a safe place, a government source told Reuters.
A live Facebook broadcast from inside the president’s house showed hundreds of protesters, some with flags, packing their bags in the rooms and hallways, shouting slogans against Rajapaksa.
Video footage of protesters standing and some bathing in the pool of the president’s home was widely circulated on social media.
Hundreds also wet the grounds outside the whitewashed building of the colonial era. No security guard was seen.
At least 39 people, including two policemen, were injured and hospitalized in the protests, hospital sources told Reuters.
ECONOMIC COLLAPSE
The island of 22 million people is struggling with a severe shortage of foreign exchange that has limited essential imports of fuel, food and medicine, and plunged it into the worst economic crisis since independence in 1948.
The rise in inflation, at a record 54.6% in June and expected to reach 70% in the coming months, has accumulated difficulties for the population.
Political instability could undermine Sri Lanka’s talks with the International Monetary Fund seeking a $ 3 billion bailout, a restructuring of some foreign debt and fundraising from multilateral and bilateral sources to alleviate the dollar drought. Read more
The crisis comes after COVID-19 hit the tourism-dependent economy and reduced remittances from foreign workers, and has been exacerbated by the accumulation of large public debt, rising oil prices and the ban on the import of chemical fertilizers last year that devastated. agriculture. The ban on fertilizers was reversed in November last year.
However, many attribute the country’s downfall to President Rajapaksa’s economic mismanagement. The mostly peaceful protests since March have demanded his resignation.
Thousands of people entered the Colombo government district, shouting slogans against the president and dismantling several police barricades to get to Rajapaksa’s home, a Reuters witness said.
Police fired into the air but were unable to prevent the enraged crowd from surrounding the presidential residence, the witness said.
Reuters could not immediately confirm the president’s whereabouts.
Despite the severe shortage of fuel that has stopped transport services, protesters packed buses, trains and trucks from various parts of the country to reach Colombo to protest the government’s failure to protect them from economic ruin. .
Discontent has worsened in recent weeks as the cash-strapped country stopped receiving fuel shipments, forcing the closure of schools and the rationing of gasoline and diesel for essential services. Read more
Sampath Perera, a 37-year-old fisherman, took a crowded bus from the coastal town of Negombo, 45 km (30 miles) north of Colombo, to join the protest.
“We have told Gota time and time again to come home, but he still clings to power. We will not stop until he hears us,” Perera said.
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Report by Uditha Jayasinghe, Devjyot Ghoshal; Editing by Rupam Jain, William Mallard and Shri Navaratnam
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