Violence raises fears of coup
As hundreds of supporters of Sri Lanka’s powerful Rajapaksa family stormed through the capital, beating anti-government protesters with crude weapons, Prasad Perera clutched his colleagues’ hands and pleaded for peace.
The 33-year-old lawyer helped to formed a human chain that stretched across a waterfront clearing, holding back the mob and allowing unarmed protesters to flee. But the chain couldn’t hold back the more terrifying eruption of violence that came next.
‘‘People became so furious with the assault on protesters that things went out of hand,’’ Perera said, recalling how he tried to stop the fighting in Colombo on Monday, only for it to sweep across the country as news of the clashes spread on social media.
‘‘People were taking to the streets, taking justice into their hand. I’m scared it’ll become anarchy.’’
A tense calm largely prevailed yesterday as troops fanned out across the island. Protesters mostly ignored a 24-hour curfew and milled through the streets of the capital, navigating overturned cars and burned buses.
Many returned to central Colombo to call for the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, brother of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, who resigned on Monday.
At least eight people had been killed and 200 injured so far, according to police spokesman Nihal Thalduwa and National Hospital in Colombo.
Military spokesman Nilantha Premarathne said soldiers had been ordered to shoot at ‘‘any person looting and causing harm to people’’.
Political leaders and analysts have voiced worries about one of Asia’s oldest democracies falling under military control if the situation deteriorates further.
Asanga Abeyagoonasekera, former head of a Defence Ministry think tank, said concerns had been bubbling for months about the prospect of a military takeover, and would only deepen after this week’s violence.
Protesters had attacked opposition politicians as well as those aligned with the Rajapaksas, Abeyagoonasekera said. ‘‘Protesters have put everyone in the same category because they’re seen as part of the problem that allowed this economic situation to brew month after month.’’
Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, executive director of the Centre for Policy Alternatives in Colombo, said the upheaval was compounding the country’s economic challenges. Sri Lanka has exhausted its foreign currency reserves, and urgently needs to negotiate a bailout with the International Monetary Fund and foreign creditors to import fuel, food and medicine, which are all in short supply on the island.
Defiant protesters gathered again yesterday on the grassy waterfront in Colombo, where they rebuilt a tent encampment that had been destroyed by government supporters. Many said the violence had only hardened their determination.
‘‘This is not going to end until Gota goes home,’’ said Roger Warnakula, a DJ who has been at the encampment for weeks, using a nickname for the president. ‘‘We will be here even if they kill us. They tried with their goons. The next round, they might try with the army. But we will not move until he resigns.’’