COLOMBO: The Sri Lankan Army on Thursday urged the anti-government protesters to desist from violence immediately or be prepared to face the "consequences", warning that the security forces are "legitimately empowered" to exercise force.
At least 84 people were hospitalised when protesters clashed with the security forces at the prime minister's office and at the main access junction to Parliament on Wednesday after President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country.
The police fired tear gas and water cannons at the mob who were trying to break barriers and enter the restricted zone.
Authorities on Wednesday imposed a curfew in the Western Province following the eruption of violence.
The curfew was lifted in the morning.
But it had to be reimposed amid fears of violence as there was no word from President Rajapaksa on his resignation.
Anticipating more protests after a group attempted to storm Parliament's entrance a day earlier, troops in green military uniforms and camouflage vests reinforced security at the Parliament on Thursday.
The Army in a statement urged the protestors to "desist from all forms of violence immediately or be prepared to face consequences as members of the Armed Forces are legitimately empowered to exercise their force, if the situation deems necessary as security to the public property, key installations, vulnerable points and human lives, does fall within the purview of their responsibility.
" It said that all heads of the armed forces and the police during meetings with the acting President and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, Speaker of the Parliament and political party leaders unanimously maintained that peaceful protests should not in anyway be dealt with full force, but with the minimum force as long as those protesters do not resort to violence or damage the public property.
The Army said "irrespective of those assurances a certain section of the protesters, purposefully deviating from its proclaimed non-violent approach continued to breach law and order and resorted to violence by trying to place the Parliament complex as well as the Speaker's official residence under siege."
It said that despite repeated appeals of Army personnel, the "unruly protesting mobs" on Wednesday tried to forcibly enter Parliament complex aggressively went on harassing and attacking the troops on duty using clubs, iron rods, stones, helmets, etc and snatched TWO T-56 weapons with ammunition rounds and caused injuries to a dozen of Army personnel.
It said the army troops on Wednesday used minimum force and brought the situation under control.
Wednesday's protests were more directed at Wickremesinghe.
Calls for his resignation intensified after he was appointed the acting president.
Political party leaders are asking him to step down so that Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena can take control as acting president.
Wickremesinghe in a statement asked the Speaker to find a suitable nominee to become the prime minister in an all-party interim government.
However, the protesters have demanded that the interim government must only consist of politicians acceptable to them.
Warily watching the political crisis in Sri Lanka where it has billions of dollars of investments, China on Thursday kept mum over the fall of the Rajapaksa brothers who promoted its expansive infrastructure projects in the island nation facing an unprecedented economic turmoil.
Asked for China's comment on President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fleeing the country amid unprecedented public protests demanding his resignation, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin reiterated Beijing's call for all parties in Sri Lanka to work together to revitalise the economy.
"As a friend, neighbour and cooperation partner, China sincerely hopes that all sectors in Sri Lanka could bear in mind the fundamental interests of their country and people and work together in solidarity to overcome the current difficulties and strive to restore stability, revitalise the economy and improve people's livelihoods at an early date," Wang said.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry had a similar response when Gotabaya's elder brother Mahinda Rajapaksa resigned as the Prime Minister under intense public protests in May and fled to a naval base in the country.
To a question, of whether China has any plan to provide new financial assistance to Sri Lanka, whose economy has completely collapsed leading to a massive uprising of people, Wang restated Beijing's oft-repeated stand that "China stands ready to work with countries and international financial institutions to continue to play a positive role in supporting Sri Lanka's response to current difficulties and efforts to ease debt burden and realise sustainable development".
Ever since Sri Lanka, which Chinese President Xi Jinping during his visit to Colombo in 2014 termed as an "all-weather friend", an encomium reserved by Beijing to its close ally Pakistan, embroiled in economic crisis, expectations were high within the island nation and abroad that China may step-in with aid to shore-up the island's fast depleting forex reserves leading to unprecedented energy crisis.
While India stepped in with over USD 3.5 billion line of credit to buy essentials like oil and gas, China, which has promised to consider a USD 2.5 billion loan, has extended USD 73 million assistance besides providing 1,000 tonnes of rice.
However, it has not announced any bridge finance sought by Colombo.
After initial reluctance, China has agreed to back the IMF package to bailout Sri Lanka, similar to the international lender's assistance to Pakistan, which is also on the brink of economic crisis.
China last month rushed USD 2.3 billion to Islamabad to shore up the forex reserves of its all-weather ally but despite that Pakistan's economy appears teetering on the brink.
Chinese analysts say that the fall of Rajapaksas could be a blow to China's close ties with Colombo besides its extensive investments stretching over USD 10 billion in Sri Lanka.
Observers also opine that Beijing, whose expansive Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) projects costing billions of dollars in Asia and Africa is increasingly getting cautious with forecasts that economies of several developing countries may face similar collapse as that of Sri Lanka.
China, they say, perhaps may crystallise its policy towards Sri Lanka and its projects after the crisis eases in the island nation, which may not appear to be in the near future.