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Hirunika claims plans to arrest her for protest

07 Mar 2022

  • Protest outside former MP’s house following Mirihana protest
Samagi Jana Balawegeya (SJB) women’s wing Samagi Vanitha Balawegeya (SVB) National Organiser Hirunika Premachandra said yesterday (6) that informed sources have alerted her that there are plans to arrest those who organised the protest in front of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s residence in Mirihana last Saturday (5), including herself. “On Saturday, me and others of the SVB decided to go meet the President in front of his house. We were asked why we did not go to the Presidential Secretariat. Every day there are about three or four protests in front of the Presidential Secretariat. The President is not affected by those. He does not hear those. But, we believed that if we went in front of his house at least, he would hear us. We asked that if the President is not in to at least allow us to meet the First Lady because we believed that as a wife and as a mother, she would understand the injustices and difficulties faced by the public these days. We wanted to meet a family member but we were only given the chance to give a letter to one of his political advisors. Now, we have learnt that there are plans to arrest me and the other organisers,” Premachandra said at a press conference yesterday. She stressed that participants of the protest had included even those who voted for the President in 2019, adding that what they were seeking was a mere discussion with the President, to tell him of their troubles. “We were told that the President and his wife had gone to Anuradhapura. Later, when we made inquiries, we learnt that he had gone to see the soothsayer known as ‘Gnana Akka’ in Anuradhapura. Where have we heard of a country’s leader going to see his soothsayer when met with such a national crisis?” questioned Premachandra. She called upon the country to step out without fear against the Rajapaksa family, and demand answers in front of their homes in the future. “The country is facing seven to eight-hour power cuts these days. These days, a woman has to look at the injustices faced by both her children, who can’t study due to the power cuts, and her husband, who has to stay in line to obtain fuel to go to work. No fuel means that the entire country is affected. A family that planned life for six months is now forced to live day by day. Everybody is facing these problems but the President and his family are not facing them. They are not affected by this,” she said. After the protest took place in front of the President’s residence last Saturday, a group of people gathered in front of Premachandra’s house that same evening, using slurs against her and challenging her to come out and meet them. In a video statement through her Facebook account the same evening, she warned that if her children were harmed due to this, she would seek international help for justice. At the press conference held yesterday, she said that she had made a police complaint regarding the matter. “What are they protesting for in front of my house? We went to meet the President because he should be brave enough to face both praise and criticism. We did not commit any crimes there. There is a dollar shortage not due to us but due to his siblings. I have learnt that it was drunk supporters of the Kaduwela Urban Council’s Vice Chairman and the supporters of a former politician convicted of murder who came in front of my house yesterday. The Kaduwela Chairman is a supporter of a Minister who was recently ousted. Thus, we heard that the Chairman is also on his way out and the Vice Chairman, as the next in line, is just attempting to score some marks from the powers that be,” she alleged.


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