Sri Lanka police tear-gas students in fresh clashes

Police fired tear gas to disperse lots of college students looking to hurricane the Sri Lankan president’s domestic Sunday because the authorities provided an olive branch to demonstrators disturbing his resignation.

Anti-revolt squads used water cannons accompanied via tear fuel, as protesters pulled down yellow iron barricades across an avenue leading to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s legit residence in Colombo.

Nearby, thousands of men and women demonstrated for the 51st straight day outside Rajapaksa’s seafront office on Sunday, demanding that he step down over the country’s worst economic crisis since independence.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe went on national television on Sunday evening offering young protesters a greater say in how the country is administered.

“The youth are calling for a change in the existing system,” Wickremesinghe said, laying out plans for 15 committees that would work with parliament to decide national policies.

“I propose to appoint four youth representatives to each of the 15 committees,” he said, adding that they could be drawn from the current protestors.

Wickremesinghe is not from Rajapaksa’s party but was given the job after the president’s elder brother Mahinda resigned as prime minister on May 9 after weeks of protests, when no other legislator agreed to step in.

Wickremesinghe is the sole parliamentary representative of the United National Party, a once-powerful political force that was nearly wiped out in Sri Lanka’s last elections.

Rajapaksa’s party, which has a majority in the legislature, has offered to provide him with the necessary support to run a government.

Sunday’s student action came a day after a similar clash when protesters tried to storm Rajapaksa’s heavily guarded colonial-era official residence, where he has bunkered down since thousands surrounded his private home on March 31.

An unprecedented shortage of foreign exchange to import even the most essential supplies, including food, fuel, and medicines, has led to severe hardships for the country’s 22-million population.

The authorities last month asked the IMF for pressing financial assistance and talks are still underway.

The country has also defaulted on its $51-billion overseas debt.

Its forex has depreciated by 44.2 percent towards the American dollar this year, even as inflation hit a reported 33.8 percent last month.