Anti-riot squads used water cannons followed by tear gas as demonstrators toppled barricades on a road leading to the official residence of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
Anti-riot squads used water cannons followed by tear gas as demonstrators toppled barricades on a road leading to the official residence of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
Police fired tear gas to disperse thousands of students trying to storm the Sri Lankan president’s home on May 29 as the government offered an olive branch to protesters demanding his resignation.
Anti-riot squads used water cannons followed by tear gas as protesters pulled down yellow iron barricades on a road that leads to the official residence of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Colombo,
Nearby, thousands of men and women demonstrated outside Rajapaksa’s beach office on May 29, the 51st straight day, demanding that he withdraw from the country’s worst economic crisis since independence.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on the evening of 29 May offered to explain to young protesters on national television how the country is administered.
“The youth are calling for change in the current system,” said Mr. Wickremesinghe, planning 15 committees that would work with parliament to decide national policies.
“I propose to appoint four youth representatives to each of the 15 committees,” he said, adding that they could be drawn from the existing protesters.
Mr. Wickremesinghe is not from Mr. Rajapaksa’s party, but was given the job after the president’s elder brother Mahinda Rajapaksa resigned as Prime Minister on 9 May After weeks of protests, when no other legislators agreed to step in.
Mr. Wickremesinghe is the only parliamentary representative of the United National Party, once a powerful political force that was nearly wiped out in Sri Lanka’s previous elections.
The President’s party, which has a majority in the legislature, has offered him the support he needs to run the government.
The student action came a day after a similar clash when protesters tried to storm President Rajapaksa’s colonial-era official residence where thousands of people surrounded his private home on March 31.
The unprecedented shortage of foreign exchange to import most essential supplies, including food, fuel and medicines, has caused serious difficulties for the country’s 22 million population.
Earlier in April, the government had sought immediate financial assistance from the IMF and talks are still on. The country has also defaulted on foreign debt of $51 billion.
Its currency has declined 44.2% against the US dollar this year, while inflation hit a record 33.8% in April.