Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa resigned on Monday, shortly after clashes between his supporters and anti-government protesters left three people dead and more than 150 injured.
The 76-year-old prime minister addressed his resignation letter to his younger brother and president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa. His departure automatically leads to the dissolution of the cabinet.
“I am resigning with immediate effect so that you can appoint a multiparty government to get the country out of the current economic crisis,” the prime minister said in his letter, which Agence France-Presse (AFP) read.
For months, the island of 22 million people has suffered severe shortages of food, fuel and medicine.
This unprecedented crisis, blamed on the COVID-19 pandemic which deprived the country of foreign exchange for the tourism sector, has been made worse by a series of bad political decisions, according to economists.
But the country’s largest opposition party had said before Monday’s clashes that it would not join any government led by a member of the Rajapaksa clan.
Thousands of supporters of Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his brother Mahinda, armed with sticks and truncheons, on Monday attacked protesters who have camped outside the president’s office since April 9.
Police fired tear gas and used water cannons after government supporters broke through police ranks to destroy encampments of thousands of anti-government protesters demanding Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s departure.
An immediate and indefinite curfew was decreed by the authorities before being extended to the rest of the island.
“We have been beaten”
Earlier Monday, in Temple Tree, in his residence very close to the presidential office, Mahinda Rajapaksa had promised to “protect the interests of the nation” to some 3,000 of his supporters, transported by bus from rural areas. On leaving, they attacked the tents of demonstrators who demanded the departure of the Prime Minister, and set fire to their banners and placards.
“We were beaten, the media were beaten, women and children were beaten,” a witness told AFP, on condition of anonymity.
In Nittambuwa, some 50 kilometers north of the capital, a ruling party MP, Amarakeerthi Athukorala, killed himself after opening fire on two anti-government protesters who were blocking his car, police said.
“The deputy fled the scene and took refuge in a nearby building,” a police official told AFP by telephone. Thousands of people surrounded the building, and he then killed himself with his revolver. »
One of the two victims, aged 27, has since succumbed to his injuries, and the bodyguard of the deputy has been found dead, added the police, without further details.
Emergency state
“We condemn the violence perpetrated today against peaceful protesters and call on the government to conduct a full investigation, including the arrest and prosecution of anyone who incited the violence,” Julie Chung said on Twitter. the United States ambassador, calling for calm.
More than 150 injured people have been hospitalized, Colombo hospital spokesman Pushpa Soysa told AFP.
“We strongly condemn the violent acts perpetrated by those who incite and participate,” President Rajapaksa said on Twitter, “violence will not solve the current problems.”
This violence is the most serious since the repression of an anti-government demonstration which left one dead and 24 injured on April 19 in the center of the country.
On Friday, President Rajapaksa declared a state of emergency for the second time in five weeks, granting sweeping powers to security forces, including authorizing them to arrest suspects and detain them for long periods without judicial supervision. It also authorizes the deployment of soldiers to maintain order, in support of the police.
According to the authorities, the army’s riot squad has, for the first time, been called in as reinforcements. Troops have been deployed regularly in recent weeks, but to protect deliveries of fuel, among other essentials.