Sri Lanka Declares State Of Emergency Hours After President Flees

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Post created on 2:06 pm

 

 

Crisis-hit Sri Lanka declared a nationwide state of emergency on Wednesday, hours after President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country, the prime minister’s office said.

“Since the president is out of the country, an emergency has been declared to deal with the situation in the country,” Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s spokesman Dinouk Colombage told AFP.

Police fired tear gas as thousands protested outside Wickremesinghe’s office in Colombo soon after the state of emergency announcement.

Protesters were demanding that Wickremesinghe step down, AFP reported, along with Sri Lanka’s embattled President Rajapaksa, who had promised at the weekend to resign on Wednesday and flew early Wednesday to the Maldives.

Rajapaksa had promised to resign and clear the way for a “peaceful transition of power” after fleeing his official residence in Colombo just before tens of thousands of protesters overran it.

His flight to the Maldives followed months of widespread protests against the island nation’s worst-ever economic crisis.

Sri Lanka defaulted on its $51 billion foreign debt in April and is in talks with the IMF for a possible bailout.

The island has nearly exhausted its already scarce supply of petrol. The government has ordered the closure of non-essential offices and schools to reduce commuting and save fuel.

If the President steps down as promised, Prime Minister Wickremesinghe will automatically become acting president until parliament elects an MP to serve out the presidential term, which ends in November 2024.

But Wickremesinghe has himself announced his willingness to step down if consensus is reached on forming a unity government.

The succession process could take between three days – the minimum time taken to convene parliament – and a maximum of 30 days allowed under the statute. If Rajapaksa does step down on Wednesday, the vote would take place on July 20, the parliamentary speaker has said.

As president, Rajapaksa enjoys immunity from arrest, and he is believed to have wanted to go abroad before stepping down to avoid the possibility of being detained.

He, his wife and a bodyguard were among four passengers on board an Antonov-32 military aircraft that took off from Sri Lanka’s main international airport, immigration sources told AFP.

On arrival in the Maldives they were driven to an undisclosed location under police escort, an airport official in Male said.

The departure of the 73-year-old leader once known as ‘The Terminator’ had been stymied for more than 24 hours in a humiliating standoff with immigration personnel in Colombo who were reluctant to assist his hasty departure.

Rajapaksa had wanted to fly to Dubai on a commercial flight, but staff at Bandaranaike International Airport withdrew from VIP services and insisted that all passengers had to go through public counters.

The presidential party were reluctant to go through regular channels, fearing public reactions, a security official said, and as a result missed four flights on Monday that could have taken them to the United Arab Emirates.

Clearance for a military flight to land in the closest neighbour India was not immediately secured, a security official said, and at one point on Tuesday the group headed to a naval base with a view to fleeing by sea.

Rajapaksa’s youngest brother Basil, who resigned in April as finance minister, also missed his own Emirates flight to Dubai early Tuesday after a tense standoff of his own with airport staff.

Basil – who holds US citizenship in addition to Sri Lankan nationality – tried to use a paid concierge service for business travellers, but airport and immigration staff said they had withdrawn from the fast track service.

“There were some other passengers who protested against Basil boarding their flight,” an airport official told AFP. “It was a tense situation, so he hurriedly left the airport.”

[AFP]