23 July,2022 10:29 AM IST | Colombo | Agencies
A demonstrator interacts with special task force personnel blocking a road as protesters take part in a march against President Ranil Wickremesinghe towards the Presidential secretariat office Friday. Pics/AFP
Sri Lankan security forces raided and partially cleared a protest camp occupying government grounds in Colombo early on Friday, fuelling fears that President Ranil Wickremesinghe had launched a crackdown a day after being sworn in. Media footage showed soldiers in riot gear and armed with assault rifles tearing down the camp, set up in April by protesters enraged by the country's economic collapse and acute shortages of fuel, food and medicine.
WICKREMESINGHE, a six-time prime minister, was sworn in as president on Thursday after winning a parliamentary vote to succeed Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who fled to Singapore last week in the wake of massive public protests triggered by the country's worst economic crisis in seven decades.
Protesters had feared a crackdown was imminent as Wickremesinghe imposed a state of emergency in the country from Monday, when he was the acting head of state, and many regarded him as an ally of Rajapaksa. Previous emergency regulations have been used to give powers to the military to arrest protesters, and curtail the right to protest.
A representative of the United Nations, and western envoys urged the government to exercise restraint, warning that the use of force could further destabilise the island nation. "Actions that stifle protests and the right to peaceful assembly can worsen economic and political instability in Sri Lanka," said Hanaa Singer-Hamdy, the United Nations resident coordinator in Sri Lanka.
Just hours after security forces moved against the protest camp, another Rajapaksa ally, senior lawmaker Dinesh Gunawardena, was sworn in as the new prime minister. Seventeen other ministers completed the cabinet, with former finance minister Ali Sabry becoming foreign minister, while sources said Wickremesinghe would keep the finance portfolio.
Sri Lankan security forces remove temporary structures set up by anti-government protesters at the site of protest camp in front of the Presidential Secretariat in Colombo on Friday. Pic/AFP
Angered by the pre-dawn raids, hundreds of protesters marched from the city's main railway station towards the Galle Face protest site, where they were held back by military and riot police manning barricades. "The very first day he used the armed forces - this is the face of Ranil Wickremesinghe," said Rajeevkanth Rajkumar, a construction company executive who was among the protesters. "We don't want any more innocent people to be injured. But we will go to that place (the protest site) at any cost."
At least 50 protesters were injured in the clashes, the organisers said, including some journalists who were beaten by security forces. Hospital sources said two were hospitalised.
50
No of protesters injured in the clashes
