Sri Lanka: Warnings of ‘bloodbath’ as political tensions rise

Colombo, Sri Lanka – The speaker of Sri Lanka‘s parliament has warned the country’s political crisis could devolve into a “bloodbath” unless President Maithripala Sirisena reconvened parliament to let lawmakers resolve his power struggle with a sacked prime minister.

The warning on Monday came as legislators loyal to ousted Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe called on their supporters to converge on Sri Lanka’s capital, Colombo, to protest against what they labeled a coup by Sirisena.

Speaker Karu Jayasuriya urged Sirisena to let Wickremesinghe prove his majority support on the parliament floor.

“We can solve this in the parliament … If we take it out to the streets, there will be a huge bloodbath,” he told reporters.

Referring to the death of one man when the bodyguard of a deposed minister opened fire on Sunday at a crowd at the state-run Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC), Jayasuriya added: “There is unrest and foreign countries are issuing travel warnings. This will set the country back on the international stage and damage our economy.”

Police took the dismissed minister, Arjuna Ranatunga, into custody on Monday after workers at the CPC threatened to strike, demanding his arrest over their colleague’s killing.  

Ratnatunga said the guard opened fire when the crowd mobbed him in an attempt to prevent him from entering his office at the CPC.

Sri Lanka, a majority Buddhist nation in the Indian Ocean, has been plunged into constitutional chaos after Sirisena’s surprise decisions over the weekend to sack Wickremesinghe and suspend parliament, in an apparent bid to shore up support for newly appointed Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, a former president accused of human rights abuses and corruption. 

The initial shock and confusion triggered by the president’s moves dissipated on Monday, and Sirisena was under increasing political and diplomatic pressure to reconvene parliament.

Global pressure

Some 126 legislators in the 225-member House sent letters to Jayasuriya on Monday, urging him to recall parliament, according to Patali Champika Ranawaka, member of Wickremesinghe’s United National Party (UNP). 

That includes 104 members of the UNP, and 22 members from the minority parties, Tamil National Alliance and the People’s Liberation Front, he said.

“This is a constitutional coup and spells the death knell for democracy,” Ranawaka told reporters. “I challenge Mahinda Rajapaksa to turn up at the parliament and show his majority.”

He called on supporters to gather in downtown Colombo at mid day on Tuesday to protest against Sirisena’s actions. 

Akila Viraj Kariyawasam, secretary general for UNP, told Al Jazeera he was expecting a huge turnout. “We will bring as many people as we can to Colombo tomorrow.” 

China has called for talks, with Lu Kang, spokesman for the country’s foreign ministry, saying on Monday that Beijing was paying close attention to developments in Colombo. 

The US, in a statement late on Sunday, expressed concern and backed the call to reconvene parliament.

Antonio Guterres, the UN chief, said he was following developments closely, and called on the government to “respect democratic values” and “uphold the rule of law”. Earlier on Sunday, neighbouring India said it hoped Sri Lanka will follow the constitutional process. 

A group of prominent Sri Lankan students also backed the call to reconvene parliament, saying Sirisena’s sacking of Wickremesinghe was the first “unconstitutional and illegal transfer of power” in the country since 1931. 

Meanwhile, the Church of Ceylon appealed to the security forces to act “impartially and with restraint” and said the country’s democratic constitution must not be abused for “political expediency”. 

There was no immediate comment from Sirisena. 

In his first public address since the crisis began, Sirisena said he had no choice but to invite Rajapaksa, a former foe he had defeated in elections in 2015, because of the alleged involvement of a member of Wickremesinghe’s cabinet in an assassination plot against him. 

Sirisena also accused the sacked prime minister of mismanaging the economy. 

Rajapaksa has meanwhile pledged to call snap election as soon as possible. 

At a ceremony attended by Buddhist monks in Colombo, Rajapaksa assumed duties of the prime minister’s office on Monday, but has yet to announce a cabinet. 

The former president’s return to power has worried human rights groups, who hold Rajapaksa responsible for crimes committed by the military at the close of the country’s 26-year-long civil war against Tamil separatists in 2009. 

Rathindra Kuruwita reported from Colombo. Zaheena Rasheed reported and wrote from Doha.