US Ambassador to Sri Lanka Julie Chung has expressed concern over the state of emergency in Sri Lanka in response to growing anti-government protests. He said that the peaceful citizens of Sri Lanka need to be listened to.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .He said a long-term solution was needed to the adverse situation faced by the Sri Lankans. Emergencies will not help. News from Ceylon Todd.
According to the BBC, AFP and Reuters, the country’s public and private sector workers have gone on strike to demand the resignation of Sri Lanka’s president and government for failing to cope with the worst financial crisis in decades. Due to this, shops, schools and businesses of the country were closed on Friday. Police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse anti-government protesters outside the parliament building in the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo. Nearly 5,000 protesters gathered in front of the parliament building demanding the resignation of the government in the country’s economic crisis. Thousands of people across the city took part in the protests.
Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa declared a state of emergency in response to the protests. Through this, the security forces have been given extensive powers. The state of emergency was declared for the second time in five weeks. It has been in effect since midnight on Friday.
According to BBC correspondents in Colombo, the protesters displayed black flags against the government. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his brother Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa have been demanding the resignation of the country’s economic crisis. The Rajapaksa family has ruled the island for several years.
A spokesman for the president said trade unions had called for tougher laws to ensure order after a nationwide strike on Friday demanding the resignation of the head of state due to the growing economic crisis.
Over the past month, power outages and severe shortages of food, energy and medicine have caused widespread suffering in the island nation of 22 million people. After independence in 1947, such misery was not seen in Sri Lanka.
Earlier on Thursday, thousands of protesting students set up camp, blocking access to parliament on an artificial island in the capital, Colombo. Security forces fired tear gas shells and water cannons at two trucks but were unable to remove them.
