Awe and Anger in Sri Lanka’s Ransacked Presidential Palace

Protesters storm in at the Sri Lankan president's official residence, in Colombo, Sri Lanka , Saturday, July, 9, 2022. (AP)
Protesters storm in at the Sri Lankan president's official residence, in Colombo, Sri Lanka , Saturday, July, 9, 2022. (AP)
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Awe and Anger in Sri Lanka’s Ransacked Presidential Palace

Protesters storm in at the Sri Lankan president's official residence, in Colombo, Sri Lanka , Saturday, July, 9, 2022. (AP)
Protesters storm in at the Sri Lankan president's official residence, in Colombo, Sri Lanka , Saturday, July, 9, 2022. (AP)

Sri Lankans roamed through a ransacked presidential palace on Sunday as calm returned to the commercial capital, Colombo, a day after protesters stormed the building and forced President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to announce his resignation.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe also said he would step down to allow an all-party interim government to take over, with Rajapaksa scheduled to quit on July 13, according to the speaker of parliament.

The political chaos could complicate efforts to pull Sri Lanka out of its worst economic crisis in seven decades, triggered by a severe shortage of foreign currency that has stalled the imports of essentials like fuel, food and medicines.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF), which has been in talks with the Sri Lankan government for a possible $3 billion bailout, said on Sunday it was monitoring events closely.

"We hope for a resolution of the current situation that will allow for resumption of our dialogue on an IMF-supported program," the global lender said in a statement.

Frustration with the economic crisis boiled over on Saturday as a huge crowd surged into the presidential palace, some taking the opportunity to frolic in its swimming pool.

About 45 people were brought into a main hospital on Saturday, a hospital official said, but there were no reports of any deaths.

On Sunday, amazed ordinary folk took the opportunity to inspect the colonial-era building. Members of the security forces, some with assault rifles, stood outside the compound but did not stop people going in.

Among those taking a look was 61-year-old handkerchief seller B.M. Chandrawathi, who sauntered into a first-floor bedroom accompanied by her daughter and grandchildren.

"I've never seen a place like this in my life," Chandrawathi told Reuters as she tried out a plush sofa.

"They enjoyed super luxury while we suffered," she said. "We were hoodwinked. I wanted my kids and grandkids to see the luxurious lifestyles they were enjoying."

Nearby a group of young men lounged on a four-poster bed and others jostled for turns on a treadmill with a view, set up in front big windows overlooking manicured lawns.

'Peaceful handover'

The economic crisis developed after the COVID-19 pandemic hammered the tourism-reliant economy and slashed remittances from overseas workers.

It has been compounded by large and growing government debt, rising oil prices and a seven-month ban on importing chemical fertilizers last year that devastated agriculture.

Like most Sri Lankans, Chandrawathi said her family was struggling to make ends meet, battered by record inflation, currency depreciation, rolling power cuts and chronic fuel shortages.

Headline inflation in the country of 22 million hit 54.6% last month, and the central bank has warned that it could rise to 70% in the coming months.

Sprawled on an ornately carved wooden sofa, Wasantha Kumara said he had spent the night inside the president's house, where a section of the main sweeping staircase was damaged.

Nearby, a handwritten poster read: "Watch as much as you want. Don't destroy or loot." A smashed vase lay next to it.

The pool's water had turned murky by Sunday and no one was seen swimming.

Kumara, a 33-year-old government employee, said he was keen to see Rajapaksa keep his promise to step down on Wednesday.

"If he doesn't go I will continue to come here and I will continue to sleep here until he does," he said.

Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena said on Saturday Rajapaksa's decision to step down was taken "to ensure a peaceful handover of power".

Wickremesinghe, a six-time premier also seen by protesters as part of the ruling elite, also agreed to step down, his office said. A part of his private residence in an affluent Colombo suburb lay in ruins, after protesters attacked it and set on fire late on Saturday.

Neither Rajapaksa nor Wickremesinghe were in their residences when the buildings were attacked.

Details of a transition of power were not clear. The speaker had outlined proposals from a meeting of political parties on Saturday that would include parliament picking an acting president within a week.

In a corner of a darkened hall at Rajapaksa's official residence, audio engineer Sameera Karunaratne sat with two friends playing Sri Lankan pop songs on a large, polished piano.

"It's a dream to come to a place like this," the 26-year-old said. "We just came to see what's going on."



Germans Mourn the 5 Killed and 200 Injured in the Apparent Attack on a Christmas Market

21 December 2024, Bremen: Mobile barriers secure the streetcar tracks at the Christmas market in Bremen, after the Magdeburg's Christmas market attack the day before. (dpa)
21 December 2024, Bremen: Mobile barriers secure the streetcar tracks at the Christmas market in Bremen, after the Magdeburg's Christmas market attack the day before. (dpa)
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Germans Mourn the 5 Killed and 200 Injured in the Apparent Attack on a Christmas Market

21 December 2024, Bremen: Mobile barriers secure the streetcar tracks at the Christmas market in Bremen, after the Magdeburg's Christmas market attack the day before. (dpa)
21 December 2024, Bremen: Mobile barriers secure the streetcar tracks at the Christmas market in Bremen, after the Magdeburg's Christmas market attack the day before. (dpa)

Germans on Saturday mourned the victims of an apparent attack in which authorities say a doctor drove into a busy outdoor Christmas market, killing five people, injuring 200 others and shaking the public’s sense of security at what would otherwise be a time of joy and wonder.

The alleged attack Friday evening in Magdeburg, about 130 kilometers (80 miles) west of Berlin, killed a 9-year-old and four adults and injured 41 people badly enough that authorities warned the death toll could rise.

Magdeburg marked the tragedy Saturday with the tolling church bells at 7:04 p.m., the exact time of the attack in the city of roughly 240,000 people.

The driver, a 50-year-old doctor who immigrated from Saudi Arabia in 2006, surrendered to police at the scene. He’s being investigated for five counts of suspected murder and 205 counts of suspected attempted murder, prosecutor Horst Walter Nopens said at a news conference.

Among other things, investigators are looking into whether the attack could have been motivated by the suspect’s dissatisfaction with the way Germany treats Saudi refugees, Nopens said.

“There is no more peaceful and cheerful place than a Christmas market,” Chancellor Olaf Scholz said. “What a terrible act it is to injure and kill so many people there with such brutality.”

Although Nopens mentioned the treatment of Saudi immigrants angle, authorities said Saturday that they still didn't know why the suspect drove his black BMW into the crowded market.

Police haven't publicly named the suspect, but several German news outlets identified him as Taleb A., withholding his last name in line with privacy laws, and reported that he was a specialist in psychiatry and psychotherapy.

Describing himself as a former Muslim, the suspect appears to have been an active user of the social media platform X, accusing German authorities of failing to do enough to combat what he referred to as the “Islamification of Europe.”

The violence shocked Germany and Magdeburg, which is the capital of the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, bringing its mayor to the verge of tears and marring the centuries-old German tradition of Christmas markets. It led several other communities to cancel their weekend Christmas markets as a precaution and out of solidarity with Magdeburg’s loss. Berlin kept its many markets open but increased its police presence at them.

Germany has suffered a string of extremist attacks in recent years, including a knife attack that killed three people and wounded eight at a festival in the western city of Solingen in August.

Friday’s attack came eight years after an extremist drove a truck into a crowded Christmas market in Berlin, killing 13 people and injuring many others. The attacker was killed days later in a shootout in Italy.

Chancellor Scholz and Interior Minister Nancy Faeser traveled to Magdeburg on Saturday, and a memorial service is to take place in the city cathedral in the evening. Faeser ordered flags lowered to half-staff at federal buildings across the country.

Verified bystander footage distributed by the German news agency dpa showed the suspect’s arrest at a tram stop in the middle of the road. A nearby police officer pointing a handgun at the man shouted at him as he lay prone, his head arched up slightly. Other officers swarmed around the suspect and took him into custody.

Thi Linh Chi Nguyen, a 34-year-old manicurist from Vietnam whose salon is in a mall across from the Christmas market, was on the phone during a break when she heard loud bangs that she thought were fireworks. She then saw a car drive through the market at high speed. People screamed and a child was thrown into the air by the car.

Shaking as she described what she had witnessed, she recalled seeing the car bursting out of the market and turning right onto Ernst-Reuter-Allee street and then coming to a standstill at the tram stop where the suspect was arrested.

The number of injured people was overwhelming.

“My husband and I helped them for two hours. He ran back home and grabbed as many blankets as he could find because they didn’t have enough to cover the injured people. And it was so cold,” she said.

The market itself was still cordoned off Saturday with red and white tape and police vans, as armed officers guarded at every entrance. Some thermal security blankets still lay on the street.