It was not clear where Rajapaksa, who also holds US citizenship, was trying to go. He resigned as finance minister in early April as street protests grew against shortages of fuel, food and other essentials, and resigned from his seat in parliament in June. His older brother Gotabaya Rajapaksa will step down as president on Wednesday to pave the way for a unity government after thousands of protesters stormed his and the prime minister’s official residences on Saturday demanding their ouster. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register The president has not been seen in public since Friday and his whereabouts are unclear. The Parliament will elect his replacement on July 20. The main opposition party has nominated its leader, Sajith Premadasa, the son of an assassinated president, for the post. The ruling party is set to decide on a candidate later in the day. The Immigration and Emigration Officers Association of Sri Lanka said its members refused to serve Basil Rajapaksa in the VIP departure lounge at Colombo airport. “Given the unrest in Sri Lanka, immigration officials are under tremendous pressure not to allow high-level individuals to leave the country,” KAS Kanugala, president of the association, told Reuters. “We are concerned about our safety. So, until this issue is resolved, the immigration officers working in the VIP lounge have decided to withdraw their services.” Photos of Basil Rajapaksa in the lounge were carried by local media and shared widely on social media, with some expressing outrage at his attempts to leave. Basil Rajapaksa could not immediately be reached for comment and a close aide declined to provide details. A senior official in the ruling party said on condition of anonymity that Basil Rajapaksa is still in the country. The Rajapaksa family, including former prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, has dominated the politics of the country of 22 million for years, and most Sri Lankans blame them for their current misery. Police said that if ordered by the court, they could investigate how about $50,000 in cash was found by protesters at the president’s home. read more Sri Lanka has been ruled by the powerful Rajapaksa family for most of the past two decades. Gotabaya Rajapaksa was elected president of the country in November 2019.
‘FREEDOM’
Basil Rajapaksa, one of the brothers of Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, gestures as he leaves after announcing that he had resigned from parliament, amid the country’s economic crisis, in Colombo, Sri Lanka, June 9, 2022. REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said during a visit to Tokyo that Sri Lanka was in a “very difficult situation” and that one of its main debt holders, China, had an important role to play. China is Sri Lanka’s fourth largest lender, behind international financial markets, the Asian Development Bank and Japan. In recent months, neighboring India has extended billions of dollars in loans to Sri Lanka to help pay for vital supplies. China has intervened less publicly but has said it supports efforts for the island nation to restructure its debt. read more The tourism-dependent economy has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic and a drop in foreign remittances from Sri Lanka, while a ban on chemical fertilizers has devastated farm production. The ban was later reversed. The Rajapaksas implemented populist tax cuts in 2019 that hit state finances while shrinking foreign exchange reserves limited imports of fuel, food and medicine. Petrol has been severely discounted and long queues have formed in front of shops selling cooking gas. Core inflation hit 54.6% last month and the central bank has warned it could rise to 70% in the coming months. Sri Lanka’s dollar-denominated government bonds extended recent declines on Tuesday to hit record lows. The 2025 note suffered the biggest losses, up to 1.125 cents with the bonds trading between 25-27 cents on the dollar, according to Tradeweb data. Protesters have vowed to remain at the official residences of the president and prime minister until they step down. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has not moved into his official residence, Temple Trees, since taking office in May, and was absent when protesters torched his private home in Colombo on Saturday. On Tuesday, seven people were hospitalized after a clash between two groups of protesters at Temple Trees, police spokeswoman Nalin Thalduwa told Reuters. It was not immediately clear what led to the altercation. A witness, who declined to be named, described it as a minor incident. The mood was festive in the airy colonial-era building, once one of the most protected in the country with armed guards and lookouts. Several hundred people walked through its stately rooms, while a young man in a baseball cap played a grand piano on a grand porch as spectators clapped along. Families with young children were picnicking on the lawn and a vendor walked by, selling lottery tickets. In a sentry box, two paramilitary soldiers with assault rifles stood by as tourists filed out of a waiting room after having their photos taken sitting in the carved high-backed chairs. “Freedom!” said Mallawaara Arachchi, a 73-year-old retired engineer who was giving a tour of the building. “We have won what we expected. We will be the best country in the world in the near future.” Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Is Krishna N. Das writing? Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Nick Macfie Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
