Crisis-hit Sri Lanka goes on strike demanding government, president step down: ‘He must go’
- Millions of workers stayed off the job on Friday in a strike organised by the trade union movement. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has insisted he won’t resign
- Police used tear gas, water cannon to disperse student protesters criticising lawmakers for not ousting president after months of blackouts and acute shortages of food, fuel and medicines
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Sri Lankan police used tear gas and a water cannon on Friday to disperse student protesters who were camped outside Parliament criticising lawmakers for not ousting President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his government over the country’s worst economic crisis in decades.
The student-led protest began on Thursday after a government-backed deputy speaker was elected in Parliament by a comfortable margin in what was seen a key victory for the governing coalition.
Separately, protesters have been occupying the entrance to the president’s office in the capital, Colombo, for 28 days demanding Rajapaksa and his powerful ruling family quit.
Shops, offices and schools were closed across the country on Friday and transport came to a near standstill amid widespread demonstrations.
Months of blackouts and acute shortages of food, fuel and pharmaceuticals have caused widespread suffering across the South Asian island nation.
Public anger has sparked sustained protests demanding the government step down over its mismanagement of the crisis, Sri Lanka’s worst since independence in 1948.
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Sri Lanka protests continue as police fire live ammunition and tear gas, killing one
Privately owned buses were off the roads while industrial workers demonstrated outside their factories and black flags were hung across the country in an expression of anger against the government.
“We can pinpoint the policy blunders of the president that led to this very sorry state of our economy,” said trade union leader Ravi Kumudesh. “He must go.”
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has insisted he will not step down despite escalating demonstrations across the island, including a protest that has been camped outside his seafront office for nearly a month.
Police fired tear gas on thousands of students attempting to storm the national parliament on Thursday evening after the assembly had adjourned for the day.
