COLOMBO, SRI LANKA (AP) – Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa resigned yesterday following weeks of protests demanding that he and his brother, the president, step down over the country’s worst economic crisis in decades, an official said.
An aide to the prime minister, Wijayananda Herath, confirmed that Rajapaksa submitted a letter of resignation to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. There was no immediate official confirmation from the president’s office.
The resignation comes after authorities deployed armed troops in the capital, Colombo, yesterday following an attack earlier in the day by government supporters on protesters who have been camped outside the offices of the president and prime minister.
The Indian Ocean island nation is on the brink of bankruptcy and has suspended payments on its foreign loans. Its economic woes have brought on a political crisis, with the government facing widespread protests and a no-confidence motion in Parliament.
Trade unions also called yesterday for a general strike until the president and the rest of his ruling family leave.
The resignation of the prime minister means that the entire Cabinet is dissolved.
Supporters of the prime minister rallied inside his office earlier yesterday, urging him to ignore the protesters’ demand to step down. They then went to the front of the office where protesters have been demonstrating for several days.
Television channel Sirasa showed government supporters attacking protesters with clubs and iron bars, demolishing and then burning their tents.
After the attack, hundreds of armed soldiers were deployed in capital, as the protesters accused police of not preventing the attack, despite using tear gas and water cannons on protesters as recently as Friday.
Sirasa TV showed government lawmaker Sanath Nishantha was among the government supporters who attacked the protesters.
At the main hospital in the capital Colombo, 78 wounded people were admitted with non-critical injuries, an official said on condition of anonymity because she was not authorised to speak to the media.
The attack came as protesters marked their 31st day outside the president’s and prime minister’s offices. They have been demanding that the president, his older brother Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and other powerful Rajapaksa family members quit. Similar protests have spread to other locations, with people setting up camps opposite the prime minister’s residence and in other towns across the country.
So far, the Rajapaksa brothers have resisted calls to resign, though three Rajapaksas out of the five who were lawmakers stepped down from their Cabinet posts in April.
Meanwhile, trade unions yesterday called for protests throughout this week, trade union activist Saman Rathnapriya said, and more than 1,000 unions representing health, port, education, and other key service sectors have joined the “Week of Protests” movement.
He said during the week, the workers will stage demonstrations at their workplaces across the country. At the end of the week, they will launch a huge march up to Parliament, demanding President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s removal and a new government.
