Sri Lanka President Gotabaya Rajapaksa declares state of emergency

The decision came amidst weeks of public protests demanding the resignation of the President and the government. Sri Lanka is going through its worst economic crisis in its history with the shortage of essentials, and power outages caused by a severe forex crisis.

Colombo:Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa declared a state of emergency with effect from Friday midnight, according to the presidential media division. The state of emergency gives the police and the security forces power to arbitrarily arrest and detain people. Rajapaksa's decision was to ensure public security and maintain essential services so as to make sure smooth functioning of the country, the presidential media division said.

The decision came amidst weeks of public protests demanding the resignation of the President and the government. Sri Lanka is going through its worst economic crisis in its history with the shortage of essentials, and power outages caused by a severe forex crisis. Rajapaksa had declared emergency on April 1 also after a mass protest opposite his private residence. He had revoked it on April 5. The Indian Ocean island nation is on the brink of bankruptcy and has suspended payments on its foreign loans. Its economic woes have brought on a political crisis, with the government facing protests and a no-confidence motion in Parliament.

Sri Lanka was due to pay $7 billion of its foreign debt this year out of nearly $25 billion it must pay by 2026. Its total foreign debt is $51 billion. Sri Lanka’s finance minister announced earlier this week that the country’s usable foreign reserves have plummeted below $50 million. For several months, Sri Lankans have endured long lines to buy fuel, cooking gas, food and medicine, most of which come from abroad. Shortages of hard currency have also hindered imports of raw materials for manufacturing and worsened inflation, which surged to 18.7% in March.

As oil prices soar during the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Sri Lanka's fuel stocks are running out. Authorities have announced countrywide power cuts extending up to 7 1/2 hours a day because they can’t supply enough fuel to power generating stations. Protesters occupying the entrance to the president’s office have been demanding the president, his older brother Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and other powerful Rajapaksa family members quit. Similar protests have spread to other locations, with people setting up camps opposite the prime minister’s residence and other towns across the country.

So far, the Rajapaksa brothers have resisted calls to resign, though three Rajapaksas out of the five who were lawmakers stepped down from their Cabinet posts in mid-April. Protesters who have crowded the streets since March hold Rajapaksa and his family — who have dominated nearly every aspect of life in Sri Lanka for most of the last 20 years — responsible for the crisis. Sri Lanka has been holding talks with the International Monetary Fund to get an immediate funding facility as well as a long-term rescue plan but was told its progress would depend on negotiations on debt restructuring with creditors. Any long-term plan would take at least six months to get underway.

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PTI