Sri Lankan Minister's Bodyguards Open Fire on Protesters

By Michael Safi, Guardian UK

28 October 18

One person killed and two injured in violence amid growing constitutional crisis

ne person has died and two were injured after the bodyguards of a Sri Lankan government minister opened fire on a crowd amid a deepening constitutional crisis in the island nation.

Arjuna Ranatunga, the petroleum minister and a former Sri Lankan cricket captain, was trying to enter a government agency in the capital, Colombo, at about 3pm on Sunday when he was confronted by supporters of the president, Maithripala Sirisena.

Amid jostling, Ranatunga’s bodyguards opened fire, injuring three people, two of them critically, according to the police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera. One of the injured died later in a Colombo hospital.

Ranatunga was rushed into the building in the aftermath of the shooting and had to be rescued by paramilitary police units. He was ushered out in a police uniform and wearing a bulletproof vest and helmet.

Sunday’s incident is the first outbreak of violence since Sirasena shocked the country on Friday night by announcing the dismissal of the prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, with whom Ranatunga was aligned.

Wickremesinghe says his dismissal is unconstitutional and has refused to vacate Temple Trees, the prime ministerial residence that was surrounded by his supporters.

One of Ranatunga’s bodyguards was arrested and the area around the government office was tense on Sunday night with a heavy police presence and crowds protesting against the shooting. Police leave has been cancelled and soldiers were deployed in parts of Colombo in what was seen as a show of strength.

Human rights groups on Sunday voiced concerns about the replacement prime minister, the former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, whose decade-long rule was marred by allegations of extrajudicial killings, media harassment and corruption.

Since his swearing in on Friday, Rajapaksa has strived to appear in control of the government, posing in photographs with the chief of police, receiving an official visit from the Chinese ambassador and visiting a Buddhist temple in the central district of Kandy to seek blessings for his administration.

Supporters of Wickremesinghe have argued his sacking was illegal because the Sri Lankan constitution prevents a president from dismissing a prime minister unless he has died, resigned or lost the confidence of parliament.

Wickremesinghe, whose United National party (UNP) holds a plurality in parliament, had immediately called for an emergency confidence vote, but was stymied on Saturday when Sirasena announced the suspension of the assembly until mid-November.

In the meantime, Rajapaksa is trying to win over UNP members of the 225-seat parliament. About five MPs have defected since Friday and 13 more are thought to be required to give the strongman leader a clear majority when parliament resumes on 16 November.

The UNP plans to protest in Colombo on Monday, while presidential officials say they will seek a court order to evict Wickremesinghe, whose security and official cars have been withdrawn.

Rajapaksa is yet to make a formal statement since his elevation to PM but told a monk on Sunday he believed he had a majority backing him in parliament.

The Buddhist nationalist leader was ousted in 2015 when Wickremesinghe and Sirasena, a former Rajapaksa ally, joined forces to defeat his government. They promised an end to the allegations of corruption, nepotism and human rights abuses that surrounded Rajapaksa’s regime.

But the coalition of the two traditionally opposing parties has grown increasingly unpopular, while the relationship between the two leaders has become more openly hostile, culminating in Friday’s sacking. Sirasena attacked Wickremasinghe in a speech on Sunday, accusing him of arrogance and arbitrary decision making.

Rajapaksa’s return would be greeted warily in western capitals and India, in part because of his authoritarian tendencies but also because of his closeness to China, which has been using its financial heft to grow its influence in south Asia.

Activists, especially among the country’s Tamil minority, are also concerned. Rajapaksa oversaw the end of the country’s nearly three-decade-long civil war against the separatist Tamil Tigers in 2009 after a series of brutal military offensives in which up to 40,000 civilians were killed, according to UN estimates.