COLOMBO, SRI LANKA -- Dozens of people were arrested in Sri Lanka following protests near the president's home demanding that he resign amid the country's worst economic crisis in memory, police said Friday.
Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's office blamed "organized extremists" within the group of protesters for violence during Thursday night's demonstration, where police fired tear gas and a water cannon at thousands of protesters and arrested 54 people. Dozens of other people were also injured.
Nuwan Bopage, an attorney representing some of the suspects, said several of them were being taken for medical examinations for various injuries and would likely appear in court later Friday.
The protesters blame Rajapaksa for long power outages and shortages of essentials. A police curfew that had been implemented in the suburbs of the capital was lifted Friday morning.
Sri Lanka has huge debt obligations and dwindling foreign reserves, and its struggle to pay for imports has caused the shortages. People wait in long lines for fuel, and power is cut for several hours daily because there's not enough fuel to operate generating plants and dry weather has sapped hydropower capacity.
On Thursday, the crowds demonstrating along the roads leading to Rajapaksa's private residence on the outskirts of Colombo stoned two army buses that police were using to block the protesters from entering the road leading to the president's house. They set fire to one of the buses and turned back a fire truck that rushed to douse it.
Senior police spokesman Ajith Rohana told media that 42 police personnel and several other civilians were injured in the unrest, and several vehicles belonging to the police and army were torched by protesters. Total damage was estimated to be around US$132,000 and the suspects will be charged with damaging public property, Rohana said.
Reporters asked the spokesman about police officers' alleged manhandling of journalists covering the protests, including the arrest of at least one of them. Rohana said police followed the rules for riot control and took action only after the protest turned violent more than four hours after it started.
Sri Lanka's economic woes are blamed on successive governments not diversifying exports and relying on traditional cash sources like tea, garments and tourism, and on a culture of consuming imported goods.
The COVID-19 pandemic dealt a heavy blow to Sri Lanka's economy, with the government estimating a loss of US$14 billion in the last two years.
Sri Lanka also has immense foreign debt after borrowing heavily on projects that don't earn money. Its foreign debt repayment obligations are around US$7 billion for this year alone.
According to the Central Bank, inflation rose to 17.5 per cent in February from 16.8 per cent a month earlier. It's expected to continue rising because the government has allowed the local currency to float freely.
