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Sri Lanka president heads to Singapore after fleeing Colombo
Earlier Thursday, Sri Lanka's anti-government demonstrators were in talks to hand back official buildings they seized, protest representatives said, even as they insisted the president and prime minister both quit in the face of an economic crisis.
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People crowd to visit Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's official residence in Colombo on July 11, 2022, after it was overrun by anti-government protestors. Millions of rupees in cash left behind by Sri Lanka's president when he fled his official residence was handed over to a court on July 11 after being turned in by protestors, police said as a succession battle got under way.
(AFP/Arun Sankar)
S
ri Lanka President Gotabaya Rajapaksa was on his way to Singapore on Thursday and was expected to stay there for the time being, a Sri Lankan government source told Reuters, after the president fled to the Maldives from his home country.
Earlier Thursday, Sri Lanka's anti-government demonstrators were in talks to hand back official buildings they seized, protest representatives said, even as they insisted the president and prime minister both quit in the face of an economic crisis.
Protesters overran Rajapaksa's palace at the weekend, forcing him to flee to the Maldives on Wednesday, when activists also stormed the office of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.
The premier, whom Rajapaksa named as acting president in his absence, has demanded the evacuation of state buildings and instructed security forces to do "what is necessary to restore order".
A top Buddhist monk supporting the campaign called for the more than 200-years-old presidential palace to be handed back to authorities and ensure its valuable art and artefacts were preserved.
"This building is a national treasure and it should be protected," monk Omalpe Sobitha told reporters. "There must be a proper audit and the property given back to the state."
Hundreds of thousands have visited the compound since it was opened out to the public after Rajapaksa fled and his security guards backed down.
"There is a move to return the buildings back to the authorities," an activist involved in the #GotaGoHome campaign told AFP.
In a televised address after thousands of people captured his office in Colombo, Wickremesinghe declared: "Those who go to my office want to stop me from discharging my responsibilities as acting president.
"We can't allow fascists to take over. That is why I declared a nationwide emergency and a curfew," he added.
The curfew was lifted at dawn on Thursday, but police said a soldier and a constable were injured in overnight clashes with protesters outside the national parliament.
The attempt on the legislature was beaten back, unlike at other locations where the protesters had spectacular success.
The main hospital in Colombo said about 85 people were admitted with injuries on Wednesday, with one man suffocating and dying after a tear gas attack at the premier's office.
Rajapaksa had promised to resign on Wednesday, but there was no announcement he had done so.
Diplomatic sources said Rajapaksa's attempts to secure a visa to the United States had been turned down because he had renounced his US citizenship in 2019 before running for president.
