Sri Lanka’s new President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s office said in a statement on Sunday, July 24, that the president had informed diplomats this week that peaceful demonstrations against his government would be allowed to continue, including in the capital Colombo, while police announced they would reopen the president’s office on Monday.
Hundreds of security personnel demolished part of a protest camp outside the presidential secretariat early Friday, raising fears of a wider crackdown on Wickremesinghe, who was sworn in a day earlier.
“President Ranil Wickremesinghe has reaffirmed Sri Lanka’s commitment to upholding the right to peaceful, non-violent assembly,” the president’s office said in a statement on the meeting with the envoy in Colombo.
It added that the president “has also briefed diplomats on some of the measures taken to ensure that nonviolent demonstrations are allowed to continue in the city without threatening property or life.”
Open the Office of the President
Against this backdrop, police confirmed that the besieged Sri Lankan president’s office will reopen on Monday after months of protests and two days of formation of a new government amid a general calm in the capital Colombo.
“The office is ready to reopen from Monday,” a police official told AFP, adding that forensic experts had visited the headquarters to gather evidence of the damage caused by protesters.
“The siege of the headquarters that began on May 9 has now been lifted,” he said.
Protesters, angry at the unprecedented economic crisis, seized the colonial-era building earlier this month.
The former president was forced to flee after months of demonstrations across the country after thousands of protesters stormed the mansion of the former president, demanding his resignation over the economic crisis.
Security and military forces stormed the headquarters just after midnight on Saturday, on orders from the new president, armed with batons and weapons.
At least 48 people were injured and nine arrested in the process, while security forces dismantled tents set up by demonstrators earlier in front of the presidential palace.
Friday’s action drew condemnation from U.N. envoys, Western countries and human rights groups, who urged the government to exercise restraint, saying the use of force could further destabilize a country undergoing its worst economic crisis in 70 years.
In the latest international response, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights spokesman Jeremy Laurence expressed concern over the aforementioned unreasonable use of force by security forces, stressing that every citizen has the right to protest peacefully and Express their views on the political and economic crisis and its impact.
Wickremesinghe took office after winning a parliamentary vote after his predecessor Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled Sri Lanka and resigned after massive protests over his government’s economic mismanagement.