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COLOMBO: Early on Friday, according to two protest organisers, Sri Lankan security personnel stormed an anti-government protest camp in the nation's commercial city, Colombo. One day after taking office, this was a sign that the nation's new leader was intensifying his crackdown.
Soldiers with assault guns were attempting to destroy the camp while a large number of police officers stood by. As dawn broke and dozens of soldiers in riot gear marched into the area, rows of protest tents that were set up on either side of the main road that passes in front of the president's secretariat were completely swept out.
Since Ranil Wickremesinghe was a friend of his ousted predecessor, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, protesters were worried that a crackdown was about to start. The "Gota Go Gama" protest camp, mockingly named after Rajapaksa, was surrounded by hundreds of security personnel around midnight, according to the protest organisers, who then tore apart a portion of it.
According to the organisers, at least 50 protestors were hurt, including some journalists who were physically assaulted by security personnel. Two were hospitalised, according to hospital sources. According to Chameera Dedduwage, the protest's organiser, "It was a systematic and premeditated onslaught." "They actually attacked people violently. What has taken place is a very mediocre display of power.
Calls from Reuters to spokespeople for the police and army went unanswered. As the acting president on Sunday, Wickremesinghe proclaimed a state of emergency in Sri Lanka. Previous emergency measures have been used to limit the ability to protest by granting the military the authority to detain and arrest demonstrators.
After Rajapaksa resigned and fled to Sri Lanka in the aftermath of widespread public protests brought on by the nation's greatest economic crisis in seven decades, Wickremesinghe was sworn into government on Thursday after winning a vote in parliament this week. Security forces proceeded in front of the presidential secretariat after enclosing the protest camp, began tearing down some tents, and assaulted protestors, according to Manjula Samarasekara, the rally's organiser.
A large number of security troops were observed inside the perimeter of the secretariat, which was earlier this month seized by demonstrators together with the president's and prime minister's official houses. Later, the homes were turned over to the government. According to Dedduwage, demonstrators intended to turn over the presidential secretariat to government officials on Friday in the late afternoon.
According to Bhavani Fonseka, a senior researcher at the Colombo-based think tank Center for Policy Alternatives, "the various steps being taken, including declaring an emergency and calling out the troops, raise serious concerns about the approach this government is taking on fundamental rights and the rule of law in Sri Lanka."
"The extreme force and violence used to eject the protestors is a clear contrast to what Sri Lanka needs at this time, particularly because the protesters had already announced their intention to leave the area,"
The British High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, Sarah Hulton, tweeted that she was "very concerned by reports from the Galle Face protest location." We've been quite clear about how important the right to peaceful protest is.