Police Kill Protester as Sri Lanka Austerity Anger Escalates
Sri Lanka’s police killed at least one person and wounded several others when they opened fire on protesters, as per news reports.
(Bloomberg) -- Sri Lanka’s police killed at least one person and wounded several others when they opened fire on protesters, news reports said Tuesday, the first fatality since demonstrations began roiling the nation over Asia’s fastest inflation and shortages of essential goods.
Officers fired live rounds in the Rambukkana area in central Sri Lanka after tear gas failed to dispel a group of protesters who had blocked a train track and tried to set fire to a diesel truck, the police media unit in capital Colombo said by phone. Agence France-Presse and several local media reported that one person was killed in the clash, citing police and hospital sources.
The injured, including police personnel, were taken to the nearby Kegalle hospital, the police media unit said, adding that an indefinite curfew has been imposed in the area. Demonstrators pelted police with stones.
Fears of a crackdown have persisted for weeks as protesters camp out in downtown Colombo to pressure President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to step down. In a statement on Saturday, the army denied “sinister” rumors that soldiers were now training to assault protesters.
Sri Lanka’s economic spiral -- the worst since it gained independence more than 70 years ago -- has brought angry citizens to the streets demanding the ouster of the Rajapaksa family. The government is now seeking as much as $4 billion in emergency aid this year to help the island nation ease hourslong power cuts, shorten fuel lines that go on for miles, and pay for imports of lifesaving drugs and food.
Policy makers are currently in Washington seeking a bailout from the International Monetary Fund. The delegation’s visit follows the central bank’s decision this month to raise interest rates by a record 700 basis points. State-run Ceylon Petroleum Corp. on Tuesday increased petrol prices for a second time in April as imports become costlier after authorities ran out of dollars to defend a currency peg and allowed the rupee to float free.
Sri Lanka’s opposition leader warned the country is facing a period of “extreme austerity” as he pushes to build support in parliament to change the constitution and remove the Rajapaksa family from power.
“We all have to swallow a bitter pill, or even several pills, because the consequences of irrationality throughout the past years have come home to roost,” Sajith Premadasa, leader of the main opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya party, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. “Economic restructuring and everything else will have costs and benefits.”
The nation’s dollar bonds extended gains after Premadasa suggested the opposition will back austerity measures. The 5.875% note due July 25 was 0.29 cent higher on the dollar at 46.87 cents Tuesday. Sri Lanka’s stock exchange is closed this week to allow investors to assess the economic conditions.
Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa -- the president’s brother -- on Tuesday promised to trim the president’s powers, the government’s biggest concession yet as it seeks to stay in power.
However, he hasn’t elaborated on the details of the constitutional changes he proposes and it’s not clear if this will placate protesters.
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