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Sri Lanka crisis: Soldiers empowered to use force to stop loss of property, life
Sri Lanka crisis: The Sri Lankan army has also deployed armoured vehicles on the streets of Colombo to deal with any emergency situation.
The Sri Lankan army on Thursday authorised the members of the armed forces and the police to exercise their force to prevent destruction of life and property. This comes after the military establishment refused acting president Ranil Wickremesinghe's directive to use force on the protesters.
The Sri Lankan army statement comes in wake of the anti-government protests which continue amid the exit of president Gotabaya Rajapaksa from Sri Lanka. In its statement, the Sri Lankan army said that all the heads of the armed forces and the police during meetings with the acting president and prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, the speaker and political leaders requested them to accelerate the issues pertaining to the political instability and the crisis through constitutional provisions.
The army said it was unanimously maintained that the ‘peaceful protests should not anyway be dealt with full force, but with minimum force as long as those protesters do not resort to violence or damage the public property.’
SRI LANKA CRISIS LIVE COVERAGE
“Irrespective of those assurances, it has been unfortunately observed that a certain section of the protesters, purposefully deviating from its proclaimed 'non-violent' approach continued to breach law and order as of Wednesday (13) afternoon and resorted to violence by trying to place the Parliament complex as well as the Speaker's official residence under siege while destroying Police barricades through heavy machinery brought in there,” the army said.
The Sri Lankan army has also deployed armoured vehicles on the streets of Colombo to deal with any emergency situation. Ranil Wickremesinghe, the acting president and prime minister, had asked the security forces to use force against the protesters to quell the protests. But the Sri Lankan military establishment declined it as they did not want to be seen as anti-people.
The protesters who had taken control of the government buildings and offices have vacated it, while continuing their demand of Rajapaksa and Wickremesinghe's resignation. The former has left Maldives and has reportedly headed to Singapore.
