Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the former Sri Lankan-chased president chased by the street in July, returned to Colombo after seven weeks of exile abroad.
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His exile was short -lived. Less than two months after his flight to the Catimini, ex-deputy president Gotabaya Rajapaksa is already back in Sri Lanka. The country’s former strong man landed at Colombo International Airport around midnight, Friday September 2, from Thailand. He was greeted by certain ministers of the government, then his procession, placed under high protection of the police and the army, hit the road in the middle of the night. A residence located in a posh district of Colombo was awarded to him by the government.
On July 9, Gotabaya Rajapaksa had been driven out of his palace by thousands of angry demonstrators holding him as the main responsible for the serious economic crisis that the island undergoes 22 million. He then fled on July 13 to Singapore via the Maldives, before officially resigning. Then, at the expiration of his visa, he had taken refuge in Thailand.
“The return of Gotabaya Rajapaksa indicates that the” clan “[of his family] and the new president, Ranil Wickremesinghe, are confident. The context has changed since July when thousands of people were on the streets . Today, the demonstrations have decreased considerably, “analyzes Bhavani Fonseka of the Center for Policy Alternatives (CPA), a reflection group based in Colombo.
” He must account “
Aragalaya, the citizen movement which was right for “Gota”, diminutive of the ex-president, was repressed as soon as Ranil Wickremesinghe. In the aftermath of the latter’s election by Parliament on July 20, part of the demonstrators’ camp had brutally dismantled during a military operation. Numerous arrests of activists have taken place in recent weeks and three members of the powerful student interuniversity student, which has played a key role in citizen mobilization, are held within the framework of the law on terrorism prevention.
“We have no objection to the return of Gotabaya Rajapaksa, he is a citizen like another, but he must account for this country”, judges Father Jeewantha Peiris, one of the figures of Aragalaya. By resigning from his mandate as president, Mr. Rajapaksa lost the immunity guaranteed to him by his functions. Number of activists from the citizen movement and human rights defenders wish today to have it translated into justice.
The ex-president is the subject of multiple accusations, ranging from corruption to abuses committed during the long civil war (1983-2009). “There are crimes of the past, human rights violations committed during the civil war and after this one, and the responsibility he has in the current economic crisis,” lists Bhavani Fonseka.
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