In the middle of the protests, a group of protesters also broke into the official residence of Gotabaya Rajapaksa. The videos began to go viral social networkswhere thousands of people are seen in the pool and using the facilities.
Faced with the chaotic situation, the Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghesummoned the leaders of the country’s political parties to an emergency meeting, and also requested the convening of Parliament, his office said in a statement.
Chaos and riots in the presidential residence
The leader of the clan, his brother Mahinda Rajapaksa (76 years old), was president of the country from 2005 to 2015. A decade in which the country’s debt with China increased due to pharaonic infrastructure projects and suspicions of corruption.
Mahinda enjoys the respect of the Sinhalese ethnic majority, having crushed the Tamil Tiger guerrillas in 2009, ending a 37-year civil war. His brother Gotabaya, nicknamed “Terminator”was his main right-hand man, secretary of the Ministry of Defense in charge of the armed forces and the police.
When it was his turn to take power, Gotabaya appointed his brother prime minister, but Mahinda had to resign in May after violent clashes between security forces and protesters left nine dead.
Protesters demanding the resignation of the Sri Lankan president refuse to leave the Presidential Palace this Sunday, after they stormed the residence the day before, forcing the president to flee and announce his resignation this week.
Saturday’s dramatic events were the culmination of a wave of protests on this island, located off the southern coast of India and plunged into an unprecedented economic and political crisis, which the protesters attribute to the management of the president. Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
Thus, hundreds of thousands of people gathered in the capital, Colombo, to demand that Rajapaksa take responsibility for the shortages of medicine, food and fuel that have thrown a relatively prosperous country into chaos.
After storming the presidential palace, which dates back to the colonial era, the crowd swept through the ostentatious rooms, some jumping into the pool and going through Rajapaksa’s wardrobe and belongings.. Troops fired into the air to allow the president to escape, when he boarded a navy ship that took him off the island.
From there, the 73-year-old president has clung to power, despite the wave of violence that left several dead in May and forced his brother to resign. Mahinda Rajapaksa, who served as prime minister. In the evening, the speaker of parliament announced on television that “to ensure a peaceful transition, the president said that he would hand in his resignation on July 13.”
sri lanka take residence of president 2022 2
The Rajapaksa’s office situated on the waterfront was also seized by protesters and another group set fire to the residence of the Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, despite the fact that he also announced his resignation. Images posted on social media show a mob applauding the fire, which broke out shortly after security forces attacked several journalists.
Colombo’s main hospital reported that it received 105 wounded on Saturday and that 55 were still hospitalized on Sunday. Among the admitted patients there are seven wounded journalists. “There is one person who is still in very serious condition after being hit by a bullet,” spokeswoman Pushpa Soysa told AFP.
Source: Ambito
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