Calm returned to the streets of Sri Lanka’s commercial and administrative capital yesterday and protesters were jubilant as Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa agreed to resign after his house in Colombo was stormed amid outrage over the South Asia nation’s collapsing economy.
Protesters, many wrapped in Sri Lanka’s national flag, swarmed into his whitewashed colonial-era residence on Saturday, jumped into the swimming pool and sat on a four-poster bed.
About 45 people were admitted to a main hospital later that day, a hospital official said, but there were no reports of any deaths.
Photo: Reuters
On Sunday, amazed civilians took the opportunity to inspect the building.
Members of the security forces, some with assault rifles, stood outside the compound, but did not stop people going in.
Among those taking a look was 61-year-old handkerchief seller B.M. Chandrawathi, who sauntered into a first-floor bedroom accompanied by her daughter and grandchildren.
“I’ve never seen a place like this in my life,” Chandrawathi told reporters as she tried out a plush sofa.
“They enjoyed super luxury while we suffered,” she said. “We were hoodwinked. I wanted my kids and grandkids to see the luxurious lifestyles they were enjoying.”
Others set fire to the private home of Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who also agreed to resign to make way for an all-party government.
Rajapaksa, a by many deemed a hero of the quarter-century civil war against Tamil rebels, plans to resign on Wednesday, Sri Lankan Legislative Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena said.
Abeywardena said that Rajapaksa’s decision to step down was taken “to ensure a peaceful handover of power.”
Thousands had descended on the seaside city demanding Rajapaksa resign after months of mismanaging the crisis, a dramatic escalation of largely peaceful anti-government protests.
The nation of 22 million people is short of food and fuel, and inflation hit a record 54.6 percent last month.
Sri Lanka’s economic crisis developed after the COVID-19 pandemic hammered the tourism-reliant economy and slashed remittances from overseas workers.
It has been compounded by large and growing government debt, rising oil prices and a ban on importing chemical fertilizers that in the middle of last year devastated the agricultural sector. The fertilizer ban was reversed in November last year.
Rajapaksa’s “decision to step down on 13 July was taken to ensure a peaceful handover of power,” Abeywardena said in a video statement on Saturday. “I therefore request the public to respect the law and maintain peace.”
Wickremesinghe, a six-time prime minister also seen as part of an uncaring ruling elite, agreed to step down, his office said.
Local news channels showed a huge fire and smoke coming from his home in an affluent Colombo suburb.
Neither Rajapaksa nor Wickremesinghe were in their residences when the buildings were attacked.
Rajapaksa had left on Friday as a precaution before the planned demonstration, two sources in the Sri Lankan Ministry of Defense said.
Reuters could not immediately confirm his whereabouts.
Details of a transition of power were not yet clear. The speaker had outlined proposals from a Saturday meeting of political parties that would include parliament picking an acting president within a week.
The IMF, which has been in talks with the Rajapaksa administration for a possible US$3 billion bailout, yesterday said it was monitoring the situation closely.
“We hope for a resolution of the current situation that will allow for resumption of our dialogue on an IMF-supported program,” the global lender said in a statement.
It said it was deeply concerned about the effects of the economic crisis on the people.
LANDMARK CASE: ‘Every night we were dragged to US soldiers and sexually abused. Every week we were forced to undergo venereal disease tests,’ a victim said More than 100 South Korean women who were forced to work as prostitutes for US soldiers stationed in the country have filed a landmark lawsuit accusing Washington of abuse, their lawyers said yesterday. Historians and activists say tens of thousands of South Korean women worked for state-sanctioned brothels from the 1950s to 1980s, serving US troops stationed in country to protect the South from North Korea. In 2022, South Korea’s top court ruled that the government had illegally “established, managed and operated” such brothels for the US military, ordering it to pay about 120 plaintiffs compensation. Last week, 117 victims
China on Monday announced its first ever sanctions against an individual Japanese lawmaker, targeting China-born Hei Seki for “spreading fallacies” on issues such as Taiwan, Hong Kong and disputed islands, prompting a protest from Tokyo. Beijing has an ongoing spat with Tokyo over islands in the East China Sea claimed by both countries, and considers foreign criticism on sensitive political topics to be acts of interference. Seki, a naturalised Japanese citizen, “spread false information, colluded with Japanese anti-China forces, and wantonly attacked and smeared China”, foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters on Monday. “For his own selfish interests, (Seki)
Argentine President Javier Milei on Sunday vowed to “accelerate” his libertarian reforms after a crushing defeat in Buenos Aires provincial elections. The 54-year-old economist has slashed public spending, dismissed tens of thousands of public employees and led a major deregulation drive since taking office in December 2023. He acknowledged his party’s “clear defeat” by the center-left Peronist movement in the elections to the legislature of Buenos Aires province, the country’s economic powerhouse. A deflated-sounding Milei admitted to unspecified “mistakes” which he vowed to “correct,” but said he would not be swayed “one millimeter” from his reform agenda. “We will deepen and accelerate it,” he
‘HYANGDO’: A South Korean lawmaker said there was no credible evidence to support rumors that Kim Jong-un has a son with a disability or who is studying abroad South Korea’s spy agency yesterday said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s daughter, Kim Ju-ae, who last week accompanied him on a high-profile visit to Beijing, is understood to be his recognized successor. The teenager drew global attention when she made her first official overseas trip with her father, as he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Analysts have long seen her as Kim’s likely successor, although some have suggested she has an older brother who is being secretly groomed as the next leader. The South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) “assesses that she [Kim Ju-ae]
RSS