Sri Lankan forces make arrests, clear main protest site
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lankan security forces arrested several people by early Friday and cleared the main camp protesters have occupied for more than three months while demanding the nation's leaders resign over an unprecedented economic collapse.
Army and police personnel arrived in trucks and buses around midnight, removing tents and protest banners at the site near the presidential palace in the capital, Colombo, where demonstrators have gathered for the past 104 days. They blocked off roads leading to the site and carried long poles.
The security forces were witnessed beating up at least two journalists. The Bar Association of Sri Lanka, the main lawyers’ body in the country, also said at least two lawyers were assaulted when they went to the protest site to offer their counsel. Its statement Friday called for a halt to the “unjustified and disproportionate actions” of armed forces against civilians.
The move against the protesters followed the swearing-in Thursday of new President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who was chosen by lawmakers earlier this week to finish the term of the leader who fled the country after protesters stormed his residence.
He now has the power to chose a prime minister to succeed himself.
The months of protests concentrated on the ousted President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his family's political dynasty, but Wickremesinghe has also drawn their ire as a perceived Rajapaksa surrogate and an example of the country's problematic political establishment.
Sri Lanka's economic chaos has left the nation's 22 million people struggling with shortages of essentials, including medicine, fuel and food.
On Monday, in his role as acting president, Wickremesinghe declared a state of emergency that gave him broad authority to act in the interest of public...
