Student demonstrators surrounded the Sri Lankan Prime Minister’s Residence here on Sunday, as the anti-government Galle Face protests reached its 16th day and the clamour for the President and Prime Minister to resign grew louder.
Thousands of Inter University Students’ Federation (IUSF) students were seen sloganeering outside the Prime Minister’s Residence in Wijerama Mawatha. Dozens were demonstrating from the parapet and boundary walls of the official residence – in images similar to that of a seize.
The agitators demanded both President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Mahinda Rajapaksa resign. The slogans ranged from soft jibes to strait taunts. Some defaced the boundary walls with graffiti reading “Go home, Rajapaksa!”
Despite calls for Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa to step down amid the island nation’s worst-ever economic crisis, the PM has said that he will not resign and has dismissed calls to form an interim government.
“What is the use of interim governments when people with varying policies can’t see eye to eye? There has to be accord which is not possible. If there is a need for an interim government it should happen only under my leadership,” PM Rajapaksa said in an interview with radio station ‘Neth FM’.
Anti-government protesters have been demanding the resignation of the prime minister and his brother, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, holding them responsible for the crisis, which has left thousands of ordinary Sri Lankans scrambling for essentials amid an acute shortage of fuel, medicines and electricity supply.
Meanwhile, President Rajapaksa on Saturday called for investments, technology transfers and financing for its sustainability efforts and cooperation for debt restructuring to support the country’s economic recovery, PTI reported.
Addressing the 4th Asia-Pacific Water Summit in Japan’s Kumamoto, he said that the country was still committed to developing and sustaining a progressive environmental agenda. “Several projects intended towards improving water cycle management were also undertaken,” he said. “These achievements reflect the emphasis we give to inclusivity and to fostering participatory growth for all Sri Lankans, which is at the heart of my government’s development efforts.”
In the meantime, the International Monetary Fund Saturday said that it had “fruitful technical discussions” with Sri Lanka on a possible IMF-supported loan program. IMF said that it discussed the need to implement “a credible and coherent strategy” to restore macroeconoimc stability and to strengthen its social safety net and protect the poor and vulnerable during the crisis, Reuters reported.
“The IMF team welcomed the authorities’ plan to engage in a collaborative dialogue with their creditors,” IMF Sri Lanka mission chief Masahiro Nozaki said in a statement.
Sri Lanka will appoint advisors to help with its debt restructuring in the next 20 days, Finance Minister Ali Sabry has said.
The Minister told local media that restructuring the country’s unsustainable external debt is a major condition to obtain financial assistance from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), reports Xinhua news agency.
Sabry said that the discussions he started with IMF officials in Washington would end on Sunday, and that there are a lot more discussions to be held ahead.
In other news, India announced it was extending an additional $500 credit line to help Sri Lanka import fuel, Finance Minister Ali Sabry said, while adding that he was hopeful the country would consider handing out another $1 billion as a credit line.
