Sri Lanka Crisis: After the President proclaimed a state of emergency, the Sri Lankan government ordered a curfew across the country from 6 p.m. Saturday until 6 a.m. Monday. “A curfew has been enforced countrywide under the powers granted to the president from 6 p.m. on Saturday until 6 a.m. on Monday,” the government’s media department announced.
On the first day after a state of emergency was proclaimed to address escalating unrest amid an unprecedented economic crisis, police and the military monitored Sri Lanka’s main city, Colombo, as shops slowly opened.
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa issued an order late Friday using severe provisions that empower the military to arrest and detain persons without warrants. In a declaration, he stated that the state of emergency was necessary to defend public order and sustain crucial supplies and services.
Hundreds of protestors clashed with police and the military outside Rajapaksa’s mansion on Thursday, calling for his removal and torching police and army vehicles. They were enraged by shortages of fuel and other vital supplies.
Sri Lanka is facing a deep economic crisis
On Friday, police arrested 53 individuals and imposed a curfew in and around Colombo to quell occasional protests. “Sri Lankans have a right to peaceful protest – important for democratic expression,” American Ambassador to Sri Lanka Julie Chung remarked in response to the state of emergency.
“I’m keeping a careful eye on the situation and hoping for restraint from all sides in the next days, as well as much-needed economic stability and relief for those in need,” she tweeted. As the government scrambles to get foreign cash to pay for gasoline imports, the island nation of 22 million people is experiencing rolling blackouts lasting up to 13 hours each day.
A vessel carrying 5,500 metric tonnes of cooking gas had to depart Sri Lankan waters when Laugfs Gas, the firm that ordered it, was unable to obtain $4.9 million from local banks to pay for it, highlighting the chronic lack of foreign currency.
“People are suffering from a severe lack of cooking gas, but how can we help them if we don’t have any dollars?” W. H. K. Wegapitiya, Chairman of Laugfs Gas, told Reuters, “We are stuck.” The ongoing problem, which has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has impacted tourism and remittances, is the product of economic mismanagement by successive governments.
It’s also a sudden turn of events for Rajapaksa, who came to office in 2019 with a landslide victory pledging stability. The administration has announced that it will seek a bailout from the International Monetary Fund as well as new financing from India and China. Indian exporters have begun shipping 40,000 tonnes of rice into the nation, the first big food help since Colombo received a credit line from New Delhi.