Protesters demanding the resignation of Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa were forced into their official residence and nearby office on Saturday, local television reported, as thousands of people demonstrated in the capital against the capital. worst economic crisis of the island nation of recent memory.
It was unclear whether Rajapaksa was inside the capital’s Colombo residence, but images filmed with mobile phones showed a large number of people inside the well-fortified house and on the outside grounds.
A government spokesman, Mohana Samaranayake, said he had no information on whether Rajapaksa had left the residence.
On Saturday, Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe offered to resign after party leaders in parliament demanded the resignation of both him and the assailed president.
Wickremesinghe said in a statement that he will resign when all parties have agreed on a new government.
Protesters gather on Saturday on the grounds of Sri Lanka’s presidential palace in Colombo. (AFP / Getty Images)
“Today in this country we have a fuel crisis, a food shortage, we have the head of the World Food Program coming here and we have several issues to deal with the IMF,” he said in reference to the International Monetary Fund. “So if this government leaves, there should be another one.”
Wickremesinghe’s decision came after protesters, many of whom have occupied the entrance to Rajapaksa’s office for the past three months, overturned barricades to launch their fury against a leader they hold responsible for the worst crisis. economic development of the country since its independence in 1948.
The video posted on social media showed hundreds of protesters running to the president’s residence, chanting “I have to go home,” calling the president by his nickname.
At the president’s office, security personnel tried to stop protesters passing by fences and stormed the colonial-era parliament building, which has become the president’s office.
More than 30 injured
At least 34 people, including two policemen, were injured in fights as protesters tried to enter the residence. Two of the injured are in critical condition, while others have suffered minor injuries, said a Colombo National Hospital official who spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not allowed to speak to the media.
Thousands of protesters had entered the capital from the suburbs on Saturday earlier after police lifted the curfew overnight.
Protesters are reacting after police fired tear gas to disperse them on Saturday in Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka. (Amitha Thennakoon / The Associated Press)
Images released on Saturday showed people in jubilant humor taking a dip in the pool in the garden of the president’s residence. Some lay down on the beds, others made tea and drank, and made “statements” from the conference room that Rajapaksa and Wickremesinghe were to leave immediately.
Wickremesinghe said he suggested to the president that he have a government of all parties, but said nothing about the whereabouts of Rajapaksa. Opposition parties in parliament are currently discussing the formation of a new government.
Rajapaksa appointed Wickremesinghe prime minister in May in hopes that the career politician would use his diplomacy and contacts to revive a collapsed economy. But people’s patience was exhausted as the shortage of fuel, medicine and cooking gas only increased and oil reserves dried up.
Many protesters accuse Wickremesinghe of trying to save Rajapaksa when he was pressured to resign, as all other members of his powerful political dynasty had left the cabinet.
Protesters demanding the resignation of Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa swim in a swimming pool inside the Colombo presidential palace on Saturday. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has said nothing about the whereabouts of Rajapaksa. (AFP / Getty Images)
Months of protests have nearly dismantled the Rajapaksa political dynasty that has ruled Sri Lanka for most of the past two decades. One of Rajapaksa’s brothers resigned as prime minister last month, and two more brothers and a nephew left their posts in the cabinet earlier.
Last month, Wickremesinghe said the country’s economy has collapsed. The government’s negotiations with the IMF have been complex because it has now entered into negotiations as a bankrupt state.
In April, Sri Lanka announced that it was suspending the repayment of foreign loans due to currency shortages. Its total foreign debt amounts to US $ 51 billion, of which it will have to pay $ 28 billion by the end of 2027.
Police on Friday night imposed a curfew on Colombo and several other major urban areas, but withdrew Saturday morning amid objections from opposition lawyers and politicians, who called it illegal. legal.
U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka Julie Chung on Friday called on people to protest peacefully and called on the army and police to “grant peaceful protesters space and security to do so.” .
“Chaos and force will not fix the economy or bring the political stability that Sri Lankans need right now,” Chung posted on Twitter.
Police in riot gear stormed a rally on Friday, removing hundreds of protesters by truck. (AFP / Getty Images)