Sri Lankan President Rajapaksa’s resignation letter to be flown in from Singapore
/ Our Today
administrator
COLOMBO (Reuters)
Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s original resignation letter will be flown into Colombo from Singapore as soon as possible, a source with knowledge of the matter has said.
Rajapaksa earlier emailed his resignation to the speaker of Sri Lanka’s parliament, two government sources said, after he fled to Singapore following mass protests over his country’s economic meltdown.
The speaker wants to see the original before formally announcing the president’s resignation.
The letter was sent shortly after Rajapaksa arrived in Singapore.
‘Quiet’ and ‘friendly’
In commercial capital Colombo, troops patrolled the streets to enforce a curfew.
Rajapaksa, who fled to the Maldives last Wednesday to escape a popular uprising over his family’s role in a crippling economic crisis, headed on to Singapore on a Saudi Arabian airline flight, according to a person familiar with the situation.
A passenger on the flight, who declined to be named, told Reuters that Rajapaksa was met by a group of security guards and was seen leaving the airport VIP area in a convoy of black vehicles.
Airline staff on the flight told Reuters the president, dressed in black, flew business class with his wife and two bodyguards, describing him as “quiet” and “friendly”.
Singapore’s foreign ministry said Rajapaksa had entered the country on a private visit, and had not sought or been granted asylum.
His decision on Wednesday to make his ally Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe the acting president triggered more protests, with demonstrators storming parliament and the premier’s office demanding that he quit too.
“We want Ranil to go home,” Malik Perera, a 29-year-old rickshaw driver who took part in the parliament protests, said on Thursday. “They have sold the country, we want a good person to take over, until then we won’t stop.”
Protests against the economic crisis have simmered for months and came to a head last weekend when hundreds of thousands of people took over government buildings in Colombo, blaming the powerful Rajapaksa family and allies for runaway inflation, shortages of basic goods, and corruption.
Comments