Ridiculed by a strong popular movement, Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa left his country early Wednesday morning aboard a military plane bound for the Maldives. The 73-year-old leader, who has vowed to resign and tried unsuccessfully to leave the country on Tuesday, took off from Colombo international airport with his wife and a bodyguard in an Antonov-32, immigration officials told AFP. services.
“They had their passports stamped and they boarded this special air force flight,” an immigration official told AFP.
According to airport sources, the aircraft was held for more than an hour on the airport tarmac awaiting clearance to land in the Maldives.
“There were tense moments, but in the end everything worked out,” an airport official said on condition of anonymity, adding that the plane would land at Male International Airport.
A planned evacuation by sea
On Tuesday, immigration officials humiliatingly rebuffed the president at Colombo airport, with Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his entourage believed by some of his aides to be fleeing aboard a patrol boat, according to a report from a senior defense source.
A Navy ship was used to transfer the head of state on Saturday from the presidential palace besieged by protesters to the port of Trincomalee, in the northeast of the country.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa then joined Colombo International Airport by helicopter on Monday. But on Tuesday, immigration officials had denied him access to the VIP room to stamp his passport, while the head of state wanted to prevent the terminal from opening to the public for fear of public reaction.
Having not yet resigned, which he promised to do on Wednesday for a “peaceful transition of power,” Gotabaya Rajapaksa still enjoys presidential immunity.
Documents and crores under seal
The head of state and his wife had spent the night from Monday to Tuesday at a military base near the international airport after missing four flights that could have taken them to the United Arab Emirates.
His younger brother Basil, who resigned as finance minister in April, also missed his flight to Dubai after a similar run-in with immigration. He attempted to use a paid concierge service for business travelers, but airport and immigration staff announced that he would remove the expedited service effective immediately.
“Other passengers protested against Basil’s boarding on his flight,” an airport official told AFP. “It was a tense situation, so he left the airport in a hurry.”
Basil, who also has US citizenship, was due to apply for a new passport after leaving his at the presidential palace when the Rajapaksa family fled Saturday in the face of an avalanche of thousands of protesters, according to a diplomatic source.
In this leak, the Sri Lankan president left a suitcase full of documents and 17.85 million rupees (49,000 euros) in cash, now sealed. If the head of state resigns as promised, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe will automatically be appointed interim president until Parliament elects a deputy who will hold power until the end of the current term, i.e. November 2024.
A country hit by an economic and social crisis
Ranil Wickremesinghe, however, is also challenged by the protesters who have camped in front of the Presidential Secretariat for more than three months to demand the president’s resignation due to the unprecedented economic crisis that the country is going through.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa is accused of mismanaging the economy, which has meant that the country, lacking foreign exchange, is unable to finance the most essential imports for a population of 22 million.
Colombo defaulted on its $51bn foreign debt in April and is in talks with the IMF over a possible bailout.
Sri Lanka has almost exhausted its gasoline reserves. The government has ordered the closure of non-essential offices and schools to reduce travel and save fuel.
Source: BFM TV
