FILE PHOTO: Sri Lankan Special Task Force and Police officers stand guard at the top of the road to Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s residence. REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte
The lockdown announcement came as the island nation braced for country-wide protests on Sunday against the government’s poor handling of the ongoing economic crisis
The Sri Lankan government imposed a nationwide curfew on Saturday a day after President Gotabaya Rajapaksa declared a state of emergency in a bid to curb protests over the country’s worst economic crisis since its independence. “Under the powers given to the president, curfew has been imposed countrywide from 6 p.m. (1230 GMT) on Saturday to 6 a.m. (0030 GMT) on Monday,” the government’s information department said in a statement, adding President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has given the directive under the Public Security Ordinance regulations.
The nationwide curfew was imposed after violent protests broke out outside President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s house. Dozens clashed on Thursday with police and the military outside Rajapaksa’s residence as they called for his ouster and torched several police and army vehicles. Lawyer Nuwan Bopage, who was among around 500 lawyers gathered at the Colombo suburban Gangodawila magistrate’s court to give free counsel, said that out of the 54 arrested, as many as 21 were given bail. Six were remanded until April 4. The rest of the 27 are in hospitals with severe assault injuries.
Here are the top developments
- India has sent 40,000 tonnes of rice to Sri Lanka in the first major food aid through a bilateral credit line agreement. Last month, India agreed to provide Sri Lanka the $1 billion credit line to help ease crippling shortages of essential items, including fuel, food and medicine. The 40,000-tonne shipment is part of 300,000 tonnes India will supply to Sri Lanka in the next few months
- India also sent a consignment of 40,000 metric tonnes of diesel, the fourth such assistance from New Delhi, to mitigate the spike in power cuts.
- Restrictions under state of emergency remain unclear. However, experts have stated restrictions on certain fundamental rights guaranteed by the constitution: the rights to freedom of expression, assembly, association, movement, occupation, religion, culture and language, may be restricted. However, Rajapaksa has defended the restrictions stating the state of emergency was necessary to protect public order and maintain essential supplies and services.
- The move has been criticised by rights lawyers who have noted that regulations defining the president’s emergency powers have yet to be issued. They have said that the regulations gave the police sweeping powers to arrest anyone for unlawful assembly. The regulations must be approved in Parliament every 30 days from their imposition.
- The lockdown announcement came as the island nation braced for country-wide protests on Sunday against the government’s poor handling of the ongoing economic crisis where people currently endure long hours of power outages and scarcity of essentials. The imposition of curfew would prevent citizens from holding protests.
- The Indian High Commission in Colombo has strongly denied “blatantly false and completely baseless” reports of New Delhi dispatching its soldiers to Sri Lanka. “The High Commission also condemns such irresponsible reporting and expects the concerned to desist from spreading rumours,” it said in a statement.
- A statement issued by the presidential media division on Friday said an extremist group was behind the unrest near President Rajapaksa’s residence in Mirihana. The police said that five policemen were injured, while a police bus, a jeep and two motorcycles were burnt as protesters turned violent. The demonstrators also caused damage to a police water cannon truck.
- Reacting to the state of emergency, American Ambassador to Sri Lanka U.S. Ambassador Julie Chung said, “Sri Lankans have a right to protest peacefully – essential for democratic expression. “I am watching the situation closely, and hope the coming days bring restraint from all sides, as well as much needed economic stability and relief for those suffering,” she tweeted.
- “Do not be deterred by tear gas, very soon they will run out of dollars to re-stock,” said one post encouraging people to demonstrate even if police attempt to break up gatherings. “#GoHomeRajapaksas” and “#GotaGoHome” have been trending for days on Twitter and Facebook in the country, which is battling severe shortages of essentials, sharp price rises and crippling power cuts in its most painful downturn since independence from Britain in 1948.
- The Indian Ocean island nation of 22 million people is grappling with rolling blackouts for up to 13 hours a day as the government scrambles to secure foreign exchange to pay for fuel imports.
- Highlighting the severe shortage of foreign currency, a vessel carrying 5,500 metric tonnes of cooking gas had to leave Sri Lankan waters after Laugfs Gas, the company that ordered it, could not procure $4.9 million from local banks to pay for it. “People are struggling with an acute shortage of cooking gas, but how can we help them when there are no dollars? We are stuck,” Laugfs Gas Chairman W.H.K. Wegapitiya told Reuters.
- Rajapaksa has defended his government’s actions, saying the foreign exchange crisis was not his making and the economic downturn was largely pandemic driven where the island’s tourism revenue and inward remittances waning.
(With inputs from agencies)
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