SL PM Resigns Amid Crisis, Violence
Colombo, May 9: Mahinda Rajapaksa resigned on Monday as Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister amid a deepening economic crisis, the worst in the country since independence in 1947, and hours after an island-wide curfew was imposed following violence in the capital Colombo.
After refusing for days to step down, Mahinda Rajapaksa capitulated as tens of thousands of Sri Lankans continued to demonstrate all across the country demanding the resignation of both President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his elder brother and Prime Minister Mahinda.
The development came on the day the police imposed a nationwide curfew after clashes broke out between rival political camps in Colombo, leaving at least 75 people people injured, media reports said.
Only a day earlier, after crowds booed him in the sacred city of Anurdhapura, Mahinda Rajapaksa appealed to the “general public to exercise restraint and remember that violence only begets violence”.
He added: “The economic crisis we’re in needs an economic solution which this administration is committed to resolving.”
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is now expected to form an all-party government in a desperate bid to beat the economic crisis that has sparked months of unprecedented blackouts and shortages of food, fuel and medicines, forcing Colombo to renege on global loan repayment and urging neighbouring countries to help out.
Although dragging anti-government protests have been mostly peaceful, government loyalists armed with sticks and clubs on Sunday attacked unarmed protesters camping outside President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s office since April 9. Police fired tear gas and water cannon on the government supporters who breached police lines to smash tents set up by government critics, the media reports said. On Friday, the government imposed a state of emergency 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.
Monday’s resignation comes 13 years after the Rajapaksas became national heroes to the overwhelming Sinhalese majority in Sri Lanka as the military crushed the separatist Tamil Tiger guerrillas, ending a quarter century of violence and anarchy.
Mahinda Rajapaksa was then the President while Gotabaya Rajapaksa, now the President, was the Defence Secretary. Today, the protesters want the entire Rajapaksa family to quit politics and return what they alleged are assets stolen from the country.
The influential Buddhist Clergy has also thrown its weight behind the anti-government demonstrations.
