On Saturday, demonstrators stormed Sri Lanka’s presidential palace due to the severe economic crisis in the country. President Rajapaksa is fleeing and is now awaiting his departure at the military base at Bandaranaike International Airport. It is said that he is trying to avoid prosecution.
Sri Lanka’s head of state has been housed in a military base after fleeing the presidential palace. Gotabaya Rajapaksa spent the night with his wife at an air force base inside Bandaranaike International Airport, a senior Defense Ministry official told AFP. According to local media, he wants to travel to Dubai. Rajapaksa has announced his resignation for Wednesday.
However, four flights to the Middle East took off from the airport, located about 30 kilometers north of the capital Colombo, without Rajapaksa on board, according to airport officials. Accordingly, the President waits in vain in the VIP lounge for officials from the immigration authorities to come to him to stamp his passport.
The situation was humiliating for the once powerful head of state. According to the information, the 73-year-old did not want to go through security and passport control in the public area because he feared harassment by other visitors to the airport. Observers suspect that Rajapaksa wanted to avoid arrest by leaving the country quickly. As long as he is still president, he enjoys immunity from prosecution.
Demonstrators stormed the presidential palace in Colombo on Saturday and Rajapaksa fled through a back door. He then announced his resignation for Wednesday. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe also offered to resign from office.
Rajapaksa’s exact whereabouts after fleeing the presidential palace had been temporarily unclear. The defense ministry official said the head of state was first staying at a naval facility before being taken to the air force base at the airport.
The mass protests against the government were mainly triggered by the severe economic crisis in the South Asian island state. The government was recently no longer able to finance the most important imports such as food, fuel and medicines. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka has asked the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Russia for help.
