‘Big difference between protesters and rioters’

COLOMBO: In an address to the nation, acting President Ranil Wickremesinghe — who ordered a state of emergency on Thursday — warned demonstrators that security forces would maintain order.

“We are committed to safeguarding democracy,” he said. ”

“There is a big difference between protesters and rioters. The rioters will be dealt with according to the law.”

He added that 24 soldiers had been wounded when protesters tried to overrun the parliament Wednesday, two of them seriously.

PWickremesinghe was sworn in as acting president — his accession was automatic under Sri Lanka’s constitution — but many of the demonstrators see him as complicit in the rule of the Rajapaksas and also want him to go.

Parliament will meet on Wednesday to elect an MP to succeed Rajapaksa for the rest of his term, the speaker’s office said, with nominations due the previous day.

Jude Fernando, an academic at the protest site, said that if Wickremesinghe was elected by the legislature, s”then I think we have lost the battle”.

“Just changing leadership, changing the heads, won’t bring about the change,” he told AFP.