SL Cabinet ministers to resign after all-party govt formation

Colombo: Sri Lanka’s entire Cabinet of ministers on Monday agreed to resign once an agreement is reached on the formation of an all-party interim government, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s office said after the president and premier offered to resign as unprecedented protests broke out and thousands of enraged demonstrators stormed the leaders’ homes over their mishandling of the country’s worst economic crisis.

President Rajapaksa on Saturday announced that he will resign. Prime Minister Wickremesinghe also said that he will step down after a new government is formed. Opposition parties on Sunday held talks and decided to form an all-party interim government after President Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Wickremesinghe agreed to resign.

“All the ministers who participated in the discussion were of the opinion that as soon as there is an agreement to form an allparty government, they are ready to hand over their responsibilities to that government,” the Prime Minister’s office said.

This was following a discussion held on Monday with cabinet ministers, it said. Party sources said that the issue of an all-party government would be discussed with the Speaker of Parliament later on Monday. —PTI

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Only people with ‘Hitler-like mindset’ torch buildings: Wickremesinghe on arson attack

Colombo: Reacting publicly for the first time after his private house was set on fire by anti-government protesters on Saturday, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on Monday said only people with a “Hitler-like mindset” torch buildings. In a special televised statement, Wickremesinghe said he accepted the post of Prime Minister as the economy was in disarray.

Wickremesinghe, 73, said he took over the difficult task to rebuild the economy at a time when the public was undergoing hardships without fuel, cooking gas and electricity. “The cost of living was high, no fuel, there was a foreign exchange crisis. People were losing jobs. I saw the suffering of the people,” he said. He said the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has noted that around four years would be required to stabilise the economy, the first year is the worst.

“This cannot be done in 1-2 days, at least a year would be needed to take the first corrective steps. The IMF said it would take four years,” he said. Commenting on the arson attack by the protestors on his house on Saturday, he said only people with a “Hitler-like mindset” torch buildings, and said there was a “background event” that led to what transpired that night.

He said a miscommunication by way of a tweet by a Muslim party leader that he had objected to forming an all-party government and refused to resign had triggered the arson attack on his house. Although he corrected it by saying he was ready to resign after the formation of an all-party government, a television station instigated the public to surround his house.

He had appealed to the TV station not to instigate the protesters to attack his house. He said that he postponed all the meetings held on July 9 and stayed at home, and then the police asked him to leave the house as there was a possibility of disturbance. Due to this, the Prime Minister stated that he and his wife left home in the evening.

Wickremesinghe said that this house was the only one he had in Sri Lanka as well as abroad, and that it has now been burnt down. “My only house was set on fire. I had 2,500 books in my library, my only asset. There were over 200-year-old valuable paintings. All of them destroyed,” he said. —PTI