SINGAPORE: Sri Lanka’s president arrived in Singapore on Thursday after fleeing protests triggered by an economic crisis, with the city-state insisting he was on a private visit and had not been granted asylum.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa, his wife Ioma and their two bodyguards arrived in Singapore from the Maldives, where they had initially escaped to a day earlier.
The Saudia airline plane carrying them landed at Singapore’s Changi Airport at 7:17 pm (1117 GMT), according to AFP journalists on site.
Reporters had descended on Changi after news emerged that the president was heading to the city-state, but by late Thursday he had not been spotted leaving.
Singapore’s foreign ministry confirmed Rajapaksa had been allowed to enter the city-state but insisted it was for a “private visit”.
“He has not asked for asylum and neither has he been granted any asylum. Singapore generally does not grant requests for asylum,” it said in a statement.
A handful of Sri Lankans were waiting in one of the airport’s arrival areas to voice their anger at Rajapaksa and the economic crisis engulfing their homeland.
Sri Lanka’s anti-government demonstrators said Thursday they were ending their occupation of official buildings, as they vowed to press on with their bid to bring down the president and prime minister in the face of a dire economic crisis.
Hundreds of thousands of people have visited Rajapaksa’s compound since it was opened to the public after he fled and his security guards backed down.
At the site, business owner Gihan Martyn, 49, accused him of “playing for time”.
“He’s a coward,” he said. “He ruined our country along with the Rajapaksa family. So we don’t trust him at all. We need a new government.”
Security sources in Colombo said Rajapaksa’s resignation letter had already been prepared.
“No sooner he gives the green light, the Speaker will issue it,” a source told AFP.
But Wickremesinghe, whom Rajapaksa named as acting president in his absence, demanded the evacuation of occupied state buildings and instructed security forces to do “what is necessary to restore order”, as a nationwide state of emergency and curfew were declared.
A spokeswoman for the protesters announced Thursday: “We are peacefully withdrawing from the Presidential Palace, the Presidential Secretariat and the Prime Minister’s Office with immediate effect, but will continue our struggle.”
A top Buddhist monk who has supported the protests had earlier called for the more than 200-years-old presidential palace to be handed back to authorities and ensure its valuable art and artefacts were preserved.
“This building is a national treasure and it should be protected,” monk Omalpe Sobitha told reporters. “There must be a proper audit and the property given back to the state.”
The curfew was lifted at dawn on Thursday before being reimposed in the capital later in the day.
Police said a soldier and a constable were injured in overnight clashes with protesters outside the national parliament.
The attempt on the legislature was beaten back, unlike at other locations where the protesters had spectacular success.
The main hospital in Colombo said about 85 people were admitted with injuries on Wednesday, with one man suffocating to death after being tear-gassed at the premier’s office.
But student Chirath Chathuranga Jayalath, 26, said: “You cannot stop this protest by killing people. They’ll shoot our heads but we do this from our hearts.”
According to Maldivian media, Rajapaksa was jeered and insults thrown at him at Male airport on Wednesday, while another group staged a demonstration in the capital urging authorities not to allow him safe passage.
Maldivian media reported that he had spent the night at the Waldorf Astoria Ithaafushi super luxury resort.
They contrasted the opulent accommodation with the economic plight of his compatriots—four out of five Sri Lankans skipping meals because of the country’s dire economic crisis.
Rajapaksa is accused of mismanaging the economy to a point where the country has run out of foreign exchange to finance even the most essential imports, leading to severe hardships for its 22 million people.
Sri Lanka defaulted on its $51-billion foreign debt in April and is in talks with the IMF for a possible bailout.
The island has nearly exhausted its already scarce supplies of petrol with the government ordering the closure of non-essential offices and schools to reduce commuting and save fuel.
Diplomatic sources said Rajapaksa’s attempts to secure a visa to the United States had been turned down because he had renounced his US citizenship in 2019 before running for president.
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