Sri Lankan protesters refuse to leave residence

COLOMBO: Sri Lankan protesters refused to budge from President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s residence on Sunday, a day after they stormed his home, forcing him to flee with the navy and announce he would resign.

“Our struggle is not over,” student leader Lahiru Weerasekara told reporters the day after Rajapaksa, currently taking refuge on a vessel offshore, said he would step down on Wednesday. “We won’t give up this struggle until he actually leaves.”

The dramatic events on Saturday were the culmination of months of protests by people enraged by the South Asian island nation’s unprecedented economic crisis and the Rajapaksa clan’s incompetence and corruption.

Hundreds of thousands massed in Colombo demanding Rajapaksa take responsibility for shortages of medicines, food and fuel that have brought the once-relatively rich economy to its knees and caused misery for ordinary people.

After storming the gates of the colonial-era presidential palace, protesters lounged in its opulent rooms, somersaulting into the compound’s pool and rummaging through Rajapaksa’s clothes.

Just before, troops had fired in the air to help Rajapaksa escape. The president then boarded a naval craft which steamed to the safety of the island’s southern waters.

On Sunday the presidential palace was a free-for-all, with children and parents plonking on a grand piano, admiring the expensive artwork, picnicking and taking it in turns to sit in the president’s chair. “When leaders live in such luxury, they have no idea how the commoners manage,” Buddhist monk Sri Sumeda said.

“This shows what can be done when people decide to exercise their power.”

Rajapaksa’s nearby seafront office was also overrun on Saturday, and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s residence was set on fire even after he too offered to resign.

From the naval ship, 73-year-old Rajapaksa — who had clung to power even after deadly nationwide violence in May forced his brother Mahinda Rajapaksa to quit as prime minister — told the speaker of parliament he would step down on Wednesday.

Security forces on Saturday had attempted to disperse the huge crowds that mobbed Colombo’s administrative district, triggering clashes.

Colombo National Hospital said 105 people were brought in and that 55 remained under treatment on Sunday, including one in a “very critical” state with a gunshot wound.

After midnight Sri Lanka’s top military officer, General Shavendra Silva, went on TV to appeal for calm and to “resolve the crisis situation peacefully and constitutionally”.

A defence source said Rajapaksa would reach the Trincomalee naval base in the northeast of the island later on Sunday. — AFP