US urges Sri Lankan leader to have peaceful transfer of power amid mass protests

Amid the ongoing protests in Sri Lanka, US Ambassador to the island nation, Julie Chung has urged for the peaceful transfer of power within the country’s constitutional framework. She also said that the US condemns all violence and calls for the rule of law to be upheld in the crisis-hit island nation.

In a tweet, Chung said, “We condemn all violence and call for the rule of law to be upheld,” stressing that a peaceful transfer of power within Sri Lanka’s democratic and constitutional framework is essential so the people’s demands for accountability, transparency, democratic governance and a better future can be realised.

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Julie Chung also requested parties to work together to bring economic and political stability in Sri Lanka.

“We urge all parties to approach this juncture with a commitment to the betterment of the nation and to work quickly to implement solutions that will bring long-term economic & political stability,” she said in a tweet.

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President Gotabaya Rajapaksa who fled to Maldives on Wednesday followed by an uprising triggered due to the economic collapse of the island nation, is now waiting to travel further to Singapore.

Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who is now an acting president, has declared a state of emergency in the country and a curfew in the Western province has been imposed.

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Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe also announced to step down from his posts amid the ongoing protests and crisis in Sri Lanka.

The worsening economic situation in the country has led to increasing tensions over the last few weeks as there were reports of several confrontations between individuals and members of the police force and the armed forces at fuel stations where thousands of desperate members of the public have queued for hours and sometimes days.

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Presently, the crisis-hit island nation is suffering its worst economic crisis since gaining independence in 1948, which comes on the heels of successive waves of Covid-19, threatening to undo years of development progress and severely undermining the country’s ability to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).