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IMF hopes for resolution of Sri Lanka crisis to allow bailout talks
Sri Lanka's President Gotabaya Rajapaksa will resign on Wednesday after thousands of protesters stormed his official residence and secretariat on Saturday, an official said. Protesters also set fire to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's private residence.
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Protestors demanding the resignation of Sri Lanka's President Gotabaya Rajapaksa gather inside the compound of Sri Lanka's Presidential Palace in Colombo on July 9, 2022. Sri Lanka's beleaguered President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled his official residence in Colombo, a top defence source told AFP, before protesters gathered to demand his resignation stormed the compound.
(AFP/AFP)
T
he International Monetary Fund (IMF) said it is hoping for a resolution to Sri Lanka's political turmoil that will allow a resumption of talks for a bailout package after a violent day of protests.
Sri Lanka's President Gotabaya Rajapaksa will resign on Wednesday after thousands of protesters stormed his official residence and secretariat on Saturday, an official said. Protesters also set fire to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's private residence.
"We hope for a resolution of the current situation that will allow for resumption of our dialogue on an IMF-supported program," the IMF said in a statement.
Meanwhile, leaders of Sri Lanka's protest movement said on Sunday they would occupy the residences of the president and prime minister until they finally quit office, the day after the two men agreed to resign leaving the country in political limbo.
Thousands of protesters stormed President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's home and office and the prime minister's official residence on Saturday, as demonstrations over their inability to overcome a devastating economic crisis erupted into violence.
Rajapaksa will quit on July 13, while Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe also said he would step down to allow an all-party interim government to take over, according to the speaker of parliament.
"The president has to resign, the prime minister has to resign and the government has to go," playwright Ruwanthie de Chickera told a news conference at the main protest site in Colombo.
Flanked by other leaders helping coordinate the movement against the government, she said the crowds would not move out of the official residences of the president and prime minister until then.
Though calm had returned to the streets of Colombo on Sunday, throughout the day curious Sri Lankans roamed through the ransacked presidential palace. Members of the security forces, some with assault rifles, stood outside the compound but did not stop people from going in.
"I've never seen a place like this in my life," 61-year-old handkerchief seller B.M. Chandrawathi, accompanied by her daughter and grandchildren, told Reuters as she tried out a plush sofa in a first-floor bedroom.
"They enjoyed super luxury while we suffered. We were hoodwinked. I wanted my kids and grandkids to see the luxurious lifestyles they were enjoying."
Nearby, a group of young men lounged on a four-poster bed and others jostled for turns on a treadmill set up in front of large windows overlooking manicured lawns.
