'No Home To Go To': Sri Lankan President Wickremesinghe Amid Public Resistance
His statement comes weeks after protesters had set fire to his private residence on 9 July.
Sri Lanka's newly elected President Ranil Wickremesinghe.
(Photo: PTI)
Sri Lanka's new President Ranil Wickremesinghe on Sunday, 31 July, said that there is no point in demanding that he “goes home” as he has no home to go to, reported Colombo Gazette.
He further added that some people have threatened to stage protests demanding that he go home, the report added.
“I am appealing to you not to do that as I have no home to go to,” Wickremesinghe said.
He said that the protestors should instead try rebuild his burnt house.
The protesters must either rebuild the country or rebuild his house, he added.
Referring to the unrest in last few month, President Wickremesinghe on Saturday, 30 July, said that an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has been pushed back to September due to the unrest over the past weeks, the Associated Press reported. The country is in the midst of negotiating a bailout package with the IMF.
Wickremesinghe was sworn-in as Sri Lanka's eighth president on 21 July. A day after he assumed the office, Sri Lankan soldiers and police personnels raided an anti-government protest camp in Colombo.
The country of 22 million people has been going through the worst economic crisis in seven decades. With food and fuel prices soaring, millions have been struggling to avail essential services in the country.
(With inputs from Colombo Gazette.)
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