In the crisis-ridden country of Sri Lanka, the opposition has called for an end to the state of emergency and the arrests of demonstrators. The “intimidation and arbitrary arrest of demonstrators” must stop, opposition leader Sajith Premadasa was quoted as saying by the online magazine “EconomyNext” after a meeting with President Ranil Wickremesinghe.
In the main protest camp of the government opponents on the beach promenade Galle Face Green in Colombo, a few hundred meters from the presidential office, only a few demonstrators held out at the weekend, but there was another protest rally in a suburb of the capital, as the “Sunday Times” reported .
Inflation is more than 60 percent
Meanwhile, the UN World Food Program is concerned about the food supply for the poorest in Sri Lanka. The island state south of India, which has around 22 million inhabitants, is in the midst of the worst economic crisis in decades. The country owes $51 billion abroad – most recently there was a lack of money to import essential goods such as fuel, medicines and gas for cooking.
Food prices have risen sharply, inflation is more than 60 percent. Nearly 6.3 million people – three out of ten households – are at risk of food insecurity, the World Food Program (WFP) said in a statement thanking them for a roughly $500,000 contribution from Norway.
Immediately after his recent inauguration, President Wickremesinghe had the security forces storm and break up the main protest camp near the president’s office. Since then, protest leaders have been arrested. The state accuses the government opponents of violence and damage to state property. The human rights organization Human Rights Watch recently accused the new leadership of using the emergency laws “to harass and arbitrarily arrest demonstrators.” Many protesters are affiliated with the Aragalaya (Sinhala for “struggle”) movement. During renewed protests in the Colombo suburb of Nugegoda, the crowd chanted “Aragalaya is not over!”.
Wickremesinghe again called for the formation of an all-party government. This is the only way to solve the problems. After a meeting with opposition politicians, they said the talks about ways out of the economic crisis had been “positive”. However, President Wickremesinghe is met with skepticism among the people. Many accuse him of standing behind his predecessor Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who fled to Singapore in mid-July after months of mass protests. He and his family are accused of running the country down through corruption and mismanagement.
The hype surrounding China’s spy ship
Meanwhile, a Chinese military surveillance ship bound for Sri Lanka continues to cause irritation in the region. After India raised concerns about the presence of the Yuan Wang 5, believed to be a spy ship, government sources in Colombo said over the weekend that talks were underway with the Chinese embassy to postpone the August 11 arrival at Hambantota port. There was no confirmation of this.
Sri Lanka had said the ship was only coming for refueling and other supplies. According to the newspaper “Nikkei Asia”, some experts consider this strange, after all, Sri Lanka itself lacks fuel. India fears the Chinese-financed and leased port in Beijing could serve as a military base. In India, it is pointed out that Sri Lanka was helped more than China during the crisis. The “Nikkei Asia” wrote that the small but strategically important island state in the Indian Ocean could not afford to alienate China or India. Sri Lanka needs both to overcome the worst economic crisis in its history.
