The Sri Lankan president fled the country early on Wednesday, escaping just hours before vowing to resign under pressure from protesters angered by a devastating economic crisis. But the crowds quickly angered the prime minister, stormed his office and demanded that he leave as well.
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his wife boarded a Sri Lankan Air Force plane bound for the Maldives, the Air Force said in a statement. This brought little relief to the island nation affected for months by an economic disaster that has caused severe food and fuel shortages, and is now plagued by political chaos.
Thousands of protesters calling for Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to resign gathered outside his office and some climbed the walls, while the crowd roared in support and threw bottles of water at those carrying . Later some could be seen inside the building and standing on a roof. terrace waving the flag of Sri Lanka.
Police in riot gear stormed a rally on Friday, removing hundreds of protesters by truck. (AP)
To an extent that could only infuriate protesters, Rajapaksa appointed his incumbent prime minister since he was out of the country, according to a parliamentary spokesman. Rajapaksa has not yet resigned, but President Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena said the president assured him he would do so later.
“We both need … to get home,” said Supun Eranga, a 28-year-old official in the crowd in front of Wickremesinghe’s office. “Ranil was unable to deliver on what he promised during his two months, so he would have to give up. All he did in Ranil was try to protect the Rajapaksas.”
But Wickremesinghe has said he would only leave when there is a new government. Police in riot gear stormed a rally on Friday, removing hundreds of protesters by truck. As the helicopters flew overhead, some protesters raised their middle fingers.
Some protesters who appeared unconscious were taken to a hospital.
Amid the chaos, Wickremesinghe declared a state of emergency across the country and state television briefly stopped broadcasting.
Sri Lankan protesters storm Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s premises. (AP)
Protesters have already seized the president’s house and office and the prime minister’s official residence after months of protests that have nearly dismantled the political dynasty of the Rajapaksa family, which ruled Sri Lanka for most of the last two decades.
On Wednesday morning, Sri Lankans continued to enter the presidential palace. A growing line of people were waiting to enter the residence, many of whom had traveled from outside the Colombo capital by public transport.
Protesters have pledged to occupy official buildings until top leaders disappear. For days, people have flocked to the presidential palace almost as if it were a tourist attraction: swimming in the pool, marveling at the paintings, and resting on the beds full of pillows. At one point, they also burned down Wickremesinghe’s private home.
At dawn, protesters paused to sing while the Sri Lankan national anthem was played from the loudspeakers. A few waved the flag.
The President of Sri Lanka, Gotabaya Rajapaksa. (AP)
Malik D ‘Silva, a 25-year-old protester in the president’s office, said Rajapaksa “ruined this country and stole our money.” He said he voted for Rajapaksa in 2019 believing his military background would keep the country safe after Islamic State-inspired bombings earlier this year killed more than 260 people.
Nearby, Sithara Sedaraliyanage, 28, and her mother, 49, carried black banners on their foreheads that read “Drop Go Home,” the protest rally.
“We hoped he was behind bars, not escaping to a tropical island! What kind of justice is this?” Sedaraliyanage said. “This is the first time the people of Sri Lanka have risen like this against a president. We want some responsibility.”
Protesters accuse the president and his relatives of diverting money from government coffers for years and the Rajapaksa administration of accelerating the country’s collapse through mismanagement of the economy.
Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. (AP)
The family has denied allegations of corruption, but Rajapaksa acknowledged that some of its policies contributed to the crisis, which has left the island nation burdened with debt and unable to pay for imports of basic necessities.
Scarcity has sown despair among Sri Lanka’s 22 million people and was even more shocking because before the recent crisis, the economy had been expanding and a comfortable middle class was growing.
The political impasse has only added fuel to the economic disaster, as the absence of an alternative unity government threatened to delay the long-awaited bailout of the International Monetary Fund. Meanwhile, the country depends on the help of neighboring India and China.
Police in riot gear stormed a rally on Friday, removing hundreds of protesters by truck. Police in riot gear stormed a rally on Friday, removing hundreds of protesters by truck. (AP)
As protests escalated Wednesday outside the prime minister’s office, his office imposed a state of emergency granting broader powers to the army and police and declared an immediate curfew in the western province that includes Colombo.
The air force said in a statement that it provided a plane, with the approval of the defense ministry, for the president and his wife to travel to the Maldives, an Indian Ocean archipelago known for exclusive resorts. He said all immigration and customs laws were followed.
A protester waves a national flag in front of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s office in Colombo, Sri Lanka. (AP)
The whereabouts of other family members who had served in the government, including several who resigned in recent months, was uncertain.
Sri Lankan presidents are protected from arrest while in power, and it is likely that Rajapaksa planned his escape while still having constitutional immunity. A corruption lawsuit against him in his former position as a defense official was withdrawn when he was elected president in 2019.
Assuming Rajapaksa resigns as planned, Sri Lankan lawmakers agreed to elect a new president on July 20, but have struggled to decide on the formation of a new government to bring the bankrupt country out of economic collapse and politician.
The new president will serve the remainder of Rajapaksa’s term, which ends in 2024, and could appoint a new prime minister, who would then have to be approved by parliament.
“Gotabaya’s resignation is a solved problem, but there are many more,” said Bhasura Wickremesinghe, a 24-year-old maritime electrical engineering student who is unrelated to the prime minister.
Protesters dance, shouting slogans against President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in front of his office in Colombo, Sri Lanka. (AP)
He complained that Sri Lankan politics has been dominated for years by “old politicians” who all have to leave. “Politics should be treated as a job: you have to have qualifications that hire you, not by your last name,” he said, referring to the Rajapaksa family.