Desk Report
Publish: 12 May 2022, 12:24 pm
A damaged bust of DA Rajapaksa, father of former Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, is pictured at a museum, following violent clashes between pro and anti-government factions and police, in Weeraketiya, Sri Lanka on May 11, 2022 || Photo: Reuters
His
beloved villa has been daubed in graffiti by protesters, and a museum dedicated
to his father ransacked. Now former Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa
is in hiding in a heavily fortified military base, protected by the armed
forces.
The
reversal of fortunes for the island nation's most powerful politician for
decades has been giddying. A scion of the Rajapaksa family beloved by many Sri
Lankans for ending a protracted civil war, the 76-year-old is now a pariah.
An
economic crisis, caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and economic mismanagement,
has drained the country of money to pay for fuel, medicine and other vital
supplies, meaning lengthy blackouts and long queues for gasoline. Food prices
are soaring.
Weeks
of largely peaceful demonstrations demanding the prime minister and his younger
brother, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, stand down, turned violent on Monday in
the deadliest unrest so far - nine people were killed and over 300 injured.
The
turmoil is the worst to hit Sri Lanka since the war ended in 2009. The small
southern town of Weeraketiya, where Mahinda liked to stay while visiting the
family stronghold of Hambantota district, was not spared.
Shortly
after the prime minister resigned on Monday, hundreds of people attacked a
small group of police officers guarding his modest villa, vandalising an
outhouse containing family memorabilia and sports trophies.
At
the main house, graffiti reading "Gota Go Home" - a rallying cry of
anti-government protests across the country - has been sprayed on the walls in
red.
In
Mahinda's bedroom, windows were smashed but otherwise it looked untouched:
television remotes were within reach of a comfortable armchair and a book on
Sri Lankan cricketer Muttiah Muralitharan lay nearby.
According
to interviews with half a dozen eyewitnesses and police officers, the villa was
the first stop on a night of vandalism targeting Rajapaksa properties. No
family members were at the residences when they were attacked.
"I
have never seen anything like it," a member of the family's security
detail said, adding that his wounded colleagues did not dare go to hospital to
be treated as they feared doctors and nurses would turn against them.
Future
in question
The
worst financial crisis since Sri Lanka's independence in 1948 has thrown the
future of the Rajapaksas into doubt. A family of rural landowners based in
Hambantotoa district, the fortunes of the Rajapaksas started flourishing when
Mahinda became prime minister in 2004.
After
he won the presidential election in 2005, Mahinda and Gotabaya, who defence
secretary at the time, ended the civil war with Tamil separatists in the north
and east of the country with a brutal government offensive that killed tens of
thousands of people.
Mahinda
was denied a third term as president in 2015, but the family came back to power
in the 2019 presidential election, this time with Gotabaya at the helm.
Two
of the nine deaths across the country in Monday's violence occurred in
Weeraketiya, after a crowd attacked the offices of a local lawmaker and his
security detail fired on them in response, according to police.
Squads
of soldiers and police, who have been given the authority to shoot to prevent
looting and damage to public property and when lives are threatened, now guard
the vandalised sites.
From
the villa, the group proceeded to a museum dedicated to Gotabaya and Mahinda's
late father, parliamentarian D.A. Rajapaksa, where they demolished exhibits and
torched the interior.
Little
was left when Reuters visited on Wednesday except a golden bust of their father
face down on the blackened floor. Houses and shops linked to ruling party lawmakers
were also heavily damaged.
Some
locals continue to support the Rajapaksa brothers, who are seen as heroes among
the island's Sinhalese Buddhist majority for snuffing out the Tamil insurgency.
Ratnaweera
Nandasiri, a 67-year-old paraplegic storekeeper and longtime supporter of the
Rajapaksas, said they had provided him with a disability allowance that helped
him survive during the pandemic.
On
Tuesday evening, he watched as a separate group of around 20 men carrying iron
bars destroyed a statue of D.A. Rajapaksa in the nearby town of Tangalle.
From
his shop backing on to the memorial garden, he said he remonstrated with the
men.
"This
is the father of the men that ended the war," he told them.
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