Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled his official residence on Saturday, invaded by hundreds of demonstrators exasperated by the country’s economic collapse and demanding his resignation.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe urgently called a government crisis meeting involving the leaders of the other political parties, indicating that he was ready to resign to pave the way for a government of national unity.
“To ensure the safety of all Sri Lankans, (the Prime Minister) supports this recommendation from the leaders of the opposition parties,” his office said in a statement.
Two relatives of the president announced their resignation, the head of the press service Sudewa Hettiarachchi and the media minister Bandula Gunawardana, who also resigned as head of the presidential party.
In the evening, demonstrators besieged the prime minister’s residence and set it on fire.
A little earlier, the president had just enough time to flee a few minutes before several hundred demonstrators entered the presidential palace, a former colonial building, a symbol of power, in front of which hundreds of thousands of people were gathered.
“The president has been escorted to a safe place,” a defense source told AFP. “He is still the president, he is protected by a military unit,” added this source, according to which the soldiers guarding the official residence fired in the air to dissuade the demonstrators from approaching until Mr. Rajapaksa be evacuated.
In the presidential pool
Local TV channels showed footage of hundreds of people climbing the palace gates.
Some protesters streamed videos live on social media showing a crowd milling around inside, some splashing and frolicking in the presidential pool or lying amusedly in the bedrooms of the residence.
“This is Gotabaya’s room, here are the underwear he left,” raved a young man, brandishing black underpants on a live video, shared on social networks. “He also gave up his shoes! “.
The protesters also invested the offices of the presidency nearby and in front of which demonstrators had been camping for three months.
Government officials said they were unaware of Mr. Rajapaksa’s intentions after he fled.
“We are awaiting instructions,” a senior official told AFP. “We still don’t know where he is, but we know he is with the Sri Lanka Navy and safe.”
Private TV channels showed a convoy of official-looking vehicles at Colombo International Airport, but no confirmation of Mr Rajapaksa’s possible departure from the country has been provided.
“Not the Sri Lanka I dreamed of”
Demonstrations demanding the resignation of Mr. Rajapaksa have gathered tens of thousands of people, accusing him of being responsible for the unprecedented crisis. Galloping inflation, shortages of all kinds, Sri Lanka lacks everything: petrol, electricity, food, medicines.
In bankruptcy, Sri Lanka is negotiating a rescue plan with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), called to the rescue in March but likely to impose tax increases.
Three people were injured by bullets when the police tried to disperse the huge crowd massed in the administrative district of the capital, and 36 other victims of tear gas massively used.
The United Nations estimates that around 80% of the population is forced to skip meals.
“My wife and I have been eating once a day for two months to make sure our child has three meals,” Janith Malinga told AFP, in the ranks of another protest against power in Fort Galle, in the South West, where cricket events continue smoothly, with Australia in the spotlight.
“It’s a complete mess, and it’s not the Sri Lanka I dreamed of,” adds this protester.
Sri Lanka was once a middle-income country, with a GDP per capita comparable to that of the Philippines and a standard of living that neighboring India envied.
“Requisitioned” trains
On Friday, the police had imposed a curfew, before giving it up.
The measure had been largely ignored by protesters anyway, some of whom forced rail authorities on Saturday to take them by train to Colombo to demonstrate, officials told AFP.
Even though the country is almost out of gas and had to close schools, the protesters, supported by the main opposition parties, have also hired private buses to travel to the capital.
According to the authorities, some 20,000 soldiers and police had been dispatched to Colombo to protect the president.
The UN had urged the Sri Lankan authorities and the demonstrators to calm down.
By May, nine people had been killed and several hundred injured in previous protests.
The crisis, unprecedented since independence, is blamed on the Covid-19 pandemic which deprived this island of 22 million inhabitants of the currencies of the tourism sector and was aggravated by a series of bad political decisions, according to economists .