Sri Lanka’s Ex-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Who Fled the Country Amid Protests, Returns

Gotabaya Rajapaksa, his wife and two bodyguards fled Sri Lanka in an air force plane on 13 July, making their way to the Maldives. From the Maldives, the ex-President travelled to Singapore, from where he sent his resignation letter to the Parliament. Rajapaksa then travelled to Thailand before returning to Colombo.

Former Sri Lankan President Goatabaya Rajapaksa returned to his home country on Saturday morning, almost seven weeks after he was forced to flee to escape the raging anti-government protestors who later ransacked the presidential palace amid the economic crisis.

Video Update: Former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who returned to Sri Lanka today, was driven out of the airport under tight security. #DailyMirror #SriLanka #SLnews #GotabayaRajapaksa @GotabayaR pic.twitter.com/YwqcmeTzWw

— DailyMirror (@Dailymirror_SL) September 2, 2022

According to reports, Rajapaksa arrived at Colombo’s Bandaranaike International Airport from Bangkok and was welcomed by lawmakers from his Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) party. He left the airport in a heavily guarded motorcade protected by armed troops.

Commenting upon the former president’s return to the country, a spokesperson for SLPP, Sanjeeva Edirimanna, said that the ex-President has the “all the right” to be back in the country.

“What we discussed was providing special protection to him. President or not, he is entitled to security as the former defence secretary,” Edirimanna stated.

Officials believe that Rajapaksa will be entitled to an official residence, given his previous positions as President and the federal defense secretary. Rajapaksa's flight from Sri Lanka necessitated a parliamentary vote to choose a new President, which saw ex-Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe elected as the new leader on July 20th.

Rajapaksa’s return to Sri Lanka comes just days after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved a $2.9 billion loan to the country under an Extended Fund Facility (EFF) to help “restore macroeconomic stability” after months of economic turbulence due to a balance of payments (BOP) crisis.

The EFF package, which will be disbursed over a 48-month time period, has yet to be approved by the IMF’s Executive Board, as per a September 1st statement from the Washington-based lender.

The IMF has also said that the “implementation” of the EFF is contingent upon assurances from Sri Lanka’s foreign creditors to restructure their respective debt as well as the government undertaking tax reforms to increase revenue. China, Japan, India, multilateral institutions as well as Western bond holders are some of the major foreign creditors of Sri Lanka.

The country’s worst economic crisis in over seven decades was caused by depleted forex reserves. It led to unprecedented shortages of fuel, food and other essentials, most of which are imported from overseas.

In April, the government also announced that it would be defaulting on its foreign debt, which totals nearly $51 billion, as it didn’t have funds to pay back the nation’s creditors.