Sri Lanka under curfew as PM’s supporters clash with protestors

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By Editor_1
A policeman (3R) arrives at the site as government supporters attack an anti-government protestor outside the President's office in Colombo on Monday (9) -Ishara S. KODIKARA / AFP
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COLOMBO – Sri Lankan police imposed a nation-wide curfew on Monday (9) after supporters of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa stormed a major protest site in Colombo and attacked anti-government demonstrators, leaving dozens hospitalized.

Protests against President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s government have raged for weeks amid the country’s worst financial crisis since independence, with thousands demanding Rajapaksa and his influential family quit for mishandling the economy.

Rajapaksa loyalists armed with sticks and clubs attacked unarmed protesters who have been camping outside President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s office since April 9, AFP reporters said.

At least 78 people injured in the clashes have been taken to Colombo’s National Hospital, a hospital official said.

Police fired tear gas and water cannon on the government supporters who breached police lines to smash tents and other structures set up by anti-government protesters.

Prime Minister Rajapaksa, the president’s brother in a twitter message urged the general public to exercise restraint and remember that violence only begets violence.

“The economic crisis we’re in needs an economic solution which this administration is committed to resolving,” he tweeted.

Earlier on Monday, hundreds of ruling party supporters rallied outside Temple Trees, the official residence of the Prime Minister, before marching to the anti-government protest site outside the presidential office.

At the ‘Gota Go Gama’ protest site, a tent village that emerged last month to become the focal point of national protests, Rajapaksa loyalists – some armed with iron bars – attacked anti-government demonstrators, according to witness accounts.

Police used dozens of tear gas rounds and water cannon to break up the confrontation, the first major clash between pro-and anti-government camps after a wave of nationwide protests began in late March.

“This is a peaceful protest,” said Pasindu Senanayaka, an anti-government protestor. “They attacked Gota Go Gama and set fire to our tents.”

“We are helpless now, we are begging for help,” Senanayaka said, as rings of black smoke spiralled out of a burning tent nearby and parts of the protest camp lay in disarray.

Dozens of paramilitary troops with riot shield and helmets were deployed to keep both groups apart after the initial clashes, and a curfew initially imposed across Western Province, was later extended to cover the entire island.

Facing escalating anti-government protests, Rajapaksa’s government on Friday (6) declared a state of emergency for the second time in five weeks, granting the military sweeping powers to arrest and detain people after trade unions brought the country to a virtual standstill hoping to pressure the Rajapaksas to step down.

The defence ministry said in a statement on Sunday (8) that anti-government demonstrators were behaving in a “provocative and threatening manner” and disrupting essential services.

Unions said they would stage daily protests from Monday to pressure the government to revoke the emergency.

Union leader Ravi Kumudesh said they will mobilize both state and private sector workers to storm the national Parliament when it opens its next session on May 17.

“What we want is for the president and his family to go,” Kumudesh said in a statement.

President Rajapaksa has not been seen in public since tens of thousands attempted to storm his private residence in Colombo on March 31.

Official sources say the president may ask his brother Mahinda to stand down in an effort to clear the way for a unity government to navigate Sri Lanka through the crisis.

But the country’s largest opposition party has already said it will not join any government helmed by a member of the Rajapaksa clan.

Sri Lanka’s crisis began after the coronavirus pandemic hammered vital income from tourism and remittances.

This left it short of foreign currency needed to pay off its debt, forcing the government to ban the imports of many goods.

This in turn has led to severe shortages, runaway inflation and lengthy power blackouts.

In April, the country announced it was defaulting on its $51 billion foreign debt.

-ENCL/Agencies

 

 

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