Sri Lanka’s president has decided not to extend beyond this week the state of emergency imposed during mass anti-government protests, his officials said today.
After the improvement of the situation in recent days, Ranil Wickremesinghe sees no need to keep the state of exception in place as the country has “stabilized”, they explained.
Immersed in a very serious economic crisis, the island has been paralyzed since April 9, when mass mobilizations began against government policies due to shortages of basic goods, especially fuel, food and medicine.
The crisis came to a head on July 9, when tens of thousands of people took to the streets of the capital and demanded that former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa leave the country, flee to Singapore and tender his resignation.
Mr Wickremesinghe, who succeeded Mr Rajapaksa, said he would take extremely tough measures against “all troublemakers”.
But today he found that “the situation has stabilized, it is not necessary to reimpose the state of emergency after it expires this week,” according to a press release from his services.
The state of exception had been imposed on July 18 by the acting head of state, who theoretically has the right to renew the measure every month.
The appointment of Mr Wickremesinghe, a six-time Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, was approved by Parliament on 20 July.
Colombo is currently negotiating a $3 billion loan agreement with the International Monetary Fund as it continues to face huge financial problems. Ratings agency S&P on Monday downgraded the island’s credit rating to D, meaning default, as Colombo defaulted on its foreign debt.
The state of emergency, a measure strongly criticized by human rights groups, allows security forces to arrest and imprison suspects without warrants and the government to impose measures even if they do not comply with law to restore order.
Source: AMPE
Source: Capital
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