COLOMBO : On behalf of the protesters at the Galle Face Green, near the presidential secretariat, a press release was issued on Monday June 20, which it says that the group wants to clarify the smear campaign undertaken by the government against the protesters.
The statement made available to Colombo Times said :” We are a group of: Collective peaceful protestors, who have organized protests both at GotaGoGama in Colombo and beyond for the past 70+ days. Many of us were present during the June 19th-20th events.
Purpose of this Release There is an organized disinformation and misinformation campaign promoted by the Rajapaksa regime and supporters to insinuate that a) the protest that took place at Galle Face near the Presidential Secretariat since 19th of June 2022 to 20th morning was against the IMF, b) that it was a coordinated attempt to obstruct ongoing IMF negotiations and c) that the protestors blocked the Finance Ministry entrance and/or were unaware that the IMF delegation was in Sri Lanka and are therefore ignorant.
We categorically deny all malicious allegations listed above. a) The protest that took place at Galle Face starting around midnight on the 19th of June 2022 was to symbolically show our dissent and disgust towards Gotabaya Rajapaksa in lieu of his 73rd birthday, which falls on 20th June. The protest was in no way against the IMF or the ongoing negotiations. b) Sri Lanka is in the midst of a humanitarian crisis; our hospitals are out of medicine, our daily lives are at a standstill due the lack of basic essentials such as fuel and food insecurity is looming.
At a time when Sri Lanka is currently experiencing our worst financial crisis since independence, we have not and never will attempt to obstruct or hinder ongoing IMF negotiations.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa and the regime arrogantly refused to seek any form of international assistance, restructure debt, and continued to serve the interest of foreign creditors while putting the lives of Sri Lankans in danger. Adamant policy decisions of the government had resulted in Sri Lanka running out of foreign currency reserves resulting in creating massive shortages of essentials including medicine, putting the lives in danger.
The government now turns to the IMF as a last resort due to poor policy making, rampant corruption and reckless mismanagement. At the end of the day, the general public is made to suffer.
We will never oppose assistance or support that could alleviate this crisis. c) The Finance Ministry entrance was not blocked by protestors – the protest at the Presidential Secretariat remained peaceful even when protestors were violently arrested by police and armed forces. Furthermore clips from the press conference and preceding events from the 19th of June, have been edited and manipulated by pro-regime media entities to portray the protestors as ignorant and misinformed. It’s not a surprise that the regime is yet again attempting to shift the narrative to blame us – the citizens in a vain attempt to cover up their own crippling failures.
We urge foreign delegations, international community, foreign and local media and especially our fellow citizens to look at the state-sponsored disinformation campaigns more critically. We also stress the need to not-compromise social spending (including but not limited to costs of health, education and safety-net programs) during this unprecedented crisis. Hence we request all the foreign delegations to urge the SL government to pursue policies to provide basic needs to strengthen the survival mechanisms of the most vulnerable communities, instead of favoring cronies. We have been fooled for too long. Let’s stay focused – this is our struggle.”
