1K trade unions strike for SL president ouster

Nearly 1,000 trade unions in Sri Lanka staged a one-day nationwide strike on Thursday demanding the immediate resignation of the government, including President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, over its failure to tackle the country's unprecedented economic crisis.

Business districts in Colombo were closed and bankers, teachers and other professionals held parades and joined the main protest site opposite the president's office where demonstrators have gathered for weeks. Meanwhile, doctors and nurses have said they will support the strike with demonstrations during their lunch break.

Sri Lanka is on the verge of bankruptcy with huge foreign debts and a shortage of foreign currency, causing shortages of imported essential goods like fuel and food.

Protesters who have crowded the streets since March 31 hold Rajapaksa and his family – who have dominated nearly every aspect of life in Sri Lanka for most of the last 20 years – responsible for the crisis.

Sri Lanka earlier suspended repayment on its foreign debts, $7 billion of which was due this year. It has foreign reserves of less than $1 billion, depleting available foreign currency. The resulting shortages of imported essentials like fuel, cooking gas, medicine and milk left people standing in lines for hours to buy limited stock.

Government officials have blamed Russia's war in Ukraine and the coronavirus pandemic for the debt crisis and say they have been discussing rescue plans with the IMF, Chinese officials and others.

Rajapaksa reshuffled his Cabinet and offered a unity government in an attempt to quell protests, but the opposition refused to be part of a government headed by the Rajapaksa brothers.