DEVELOPING STORYDEVELOPING STORY,
Protests in Sri Lanka turn violent as demonstrators set fire to police vehicles and block roads amid worst economic crisis in decades.
Colombo, Sri Lanka – Police in Sri Lanka have fired tear gas and water cannon to disperse huge crowds protesting near President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s residence in Colombo amid a worsening economic crisis that has resulted in rolling blackouts for up to 13 hours a day.
The hundreds-strong crowd in the capital’s Mirihana district on Thursday evening threw stones and clashed with police in riot gear as they pushed through the first line barricades blocking the road to Rajapaksa’s private residence, chanting “Go home Gota!” and “Gota is a dictator”.
Videos from the protest site, posted by the News Wire outlet on Facebook, showed a police bus on fire and protesters tending to a man with a bloodied face.
It is not clear if the president is currently at his residence.
A spokesperson for the police declined to comment immediately.
The calls for Rajapaksa’s resignation came as Sri Lanka struggles with an economic downturn sparked by a foreign exchange crisis that has left the government unable to pay for imports of fuel, food and other essentials. Several state-run hospitals in the island nation of 22 million people have suspended routine surgeries amid the power cuts and shortages of medicines.
Rajapaksa’s government has turned to the International Monetary Fund for a bailout and is also seeking help from China and India. Beijing and New Delhi are reportedly each considering offering $1.5bn in credit facilities, on top of loans worth billions of dollars requested by the Sri Lankan government.
Thursday’s protest started out peacefully, with hundreds of people rallying a few streets away from Rajapaksa’s residence in what they said was a “spontaneous” gathering.
“We came to protest the unbearable cost of living, fuel shortages and electricity cuts,” said 26-year-old protester Ajith Perera, who spoke before the police cracked down. “The decision to come to the president’s house was spontaneous. We want the president, who has caused so much destruction to go home.”
Mohamed Asri, 21, told Al Jazeera he could not remember “things being this bad” in Sri Lanka in his life time.
“We can hardly eat two meals. Gota has to go,” he said.
Following the police crackdown, local media reported protests spreading throughout the city, with the Daily Mirror newspaper saying that demonstrators had blocked the main highway from Colombo to Sri Lanka’s second biggest city of Kandy by burning logs.
“The protests were peaceful until police used tear gas and water cannon. I am angry, everyone is angry,” said protestor Saman Wanasinghe. “Who knows what will happen now. There will be protests all over.”
Rathindra Kuruwita reported from Colombo, Sri Lanka, while Zaheena Rasheed reported and wrote from Male, Maldives.
