Sri Lanka’s fugitive president meets his promise to resign

Sri Lanka’s fugitive president has refused to resign, breaking a promise he made to anti-government protesters when he fled the country yesterday.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa, a war hero whose family has ruled the South Asian country for two decades, set a midnight deadline for himself on Wednesday to resign but had failed to keep the promise on Thursday morning.

Mr Rajapaksa fled to the Maldives on board a military commander plane yesterday after protesters occupied his home and is believed to be en route to Singapore with wife Ioma.

Meanwhile, protest leaders said talks are underway to return occupied buildings to the state, fearing their art and artifacts could be damaged as Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe called on police to do “whatever it takes” to restore order. .

Sri Lanka is suffering from its worst financial crisis in decades, caused by mismanagement of the country’s huge foreign debts and revenue shortfalls due to the Covid pandemic.

Protests against the government began in April when Sri Lanka’s dwindling foreign exchange stocks prevented the country from buying essentials, while ministers searched in vain for creditors willing to lend more money.

China – Sri Lanka’s largest lender – has refused to back down, as have India and Russia.

Talks are underway with the International Monetary Fund for a bailout, but Sri Lanka is resisting over the anti-corruption and austerity measures the bank would impose as a condition of providing the billions it needs.

Last week, protesters began storming government buildings — starting with Mr Rajapaksa’s palace, where they were photographed swimming in his pool and using his shower.

They then set fire to Mr Wickremesinghe’s residence and besieged a number of other government offices.

Early on Wednesday, Rajapaksa demanded a military plane to fly himself to the Maldives to escape the crisis, and sent back parliament that he would resign.

Mr Wickremesinghe has also pledged to step down once elections are held to form a new government.

But as of Thursday morning, Rajapaksa has yet to deliver on his promise — perhaps in hopes of staying in power long enough to get money into the country and extinguish protests.

Campaigners are already calling for protesters to leave the presidential palace — which has become something of a pilgrimage site for angry locals — in order to preserve the art and artifacts.

“This building is a national treasure and must be protected,” Buddhist monk Omalpe Sobitha told reporters.

“There must be a proper audit and the property must be returned to the state.”

Hundreds of thousands have visited the compound since it opened to the public after Rajapaksa fled and his guards withdrew.

“There is an action to return the buildings to the authorities,” an activist involved in the #GotaGoHome campaign told AFP.

In a televised address after thousands of people occupied his office in Colombo, Wickremesinghe stated: “Those who go to my office want to prevent me from fulfilling my responsibilities as acting president.

“We cannot allow fascists to take over. That is why I have declared a national emergency and imposed a curfew,” he added.

The curfew was lifted at dawn on Thursday, but police said a soldier and a police officer were injured in nighttime clashes with protesters outside the national parliament.

The attack on the legislature was beaten back, unlike other locations where the protesters had spectacular success.

The main hospital in Colombo said it had admitted about 85 people with injuries on Wednesday, with one man choking and dying after a tear gas attack at the prime minister’s office.

Rajapaksa had promised to resign on Wednesday, but there was no announcement that he had done so.

He remained in the Maldives, reportedly waiting for a private jet to take him, his wife Ioma and two bodyguards to Singapore.

Diplomatic sources said Rajapaksa’s attempts to get a visa to the United States had been rejected because he renounced his US citizenship in 2019 before running for president.