COLOMBO: Deposed Sri Lankan president Gotabaya Rajapaksa faced calls for his arrest on Saturday after returning home from self-imposed exile under the protection of his successor’s government.

Rajapaksa fled the island nation under military escort in July after a huge crowd stormed his official residence following months of demonstrations sparked by an unprecedented economic crisis.

The 73-year-old announced his resignation from Singapore and spent weeks under virtual house arrest at a Bangkok hotel before his return late on Friday.

Leaders of the protest campaign that toppled his government said Rajapaksa, who lost his presidential immunity after leaving office, should now be brought to justice.

“Gotabaya returned because no country is willing to accept him, he has no place to hide,” Joseph Stalin, the leader of a teachers’ trade union that helped mobilise demonstrators, told AFP.

“He should be arrested immediately for causing such misery for the 22 million people of Sri Lan­ka,” he added. “He can’t live freely as if nothing has happened.”

Rajapaksa’s government was accused of chaotic mismanagement as the Sri Lankan economy spiralled into a blistering downturn.

The crisis saw acute shortages of food, lengthy blackouts and long queues at gas stations for scarce fuel supplies after the country ran out of foreign currency to pay for vital imports.

Sri Lanka’s main opposition alliance, the Samagi Jana Balawe­gaya (SJB), has yet to comment on Rajapaksa’s return, but a former minister from the bloc said the ousted leader needed to be prosecuted. “Gotabaya must be held to account for his crimes before and during his presidency,” Ajith Perera told reporters in Colombo.

Rajapaksa was garlanded with flowers by ministers and senior politicians after disembarking from his flight in Colombo. He was driven in a security convoy to a new official residence in the capital provided to him by the government of President Ranil Wickremesinghe, his successor.

Wickremesinghe depends on Rajapaksa’s Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) party to govern and on Friday passed an austerity budget — a precondition for an International Monetary Fund bailout — with the grouping’s support.

“Gotabaya’s return demonstrates that the SLPP is still powerful despite the humiliation they suffered,” Hasith Kandau­dahewa, a senior lecturer on international relations at the University of Colombo, told AFP.

Rajapaksa began receiving guests at his new home on Saturday with his elder brother — former president Mahinda Rajapaksa — one of the first to call on him, witnesses said.

Mahinda was serving as premier in his brother’s administration when he too was chased from his home by a mob who were responding to an attack on protesters by government loyalists.

Asia Society Policy Institute director Akhil Bery said the powerful family, which has dominated Sri Lankan politics for much of the past two decades, could be plotting a comeback.

Their allies “might be betting that the unpopular decisions Ranil has had to take will lay the groundwork for the Rajapaksas’ return”, the analyst told AFP.

Wickremesinghe’s government has drastically increased the cost of fuel and electricity to help repair the nation’s finances at a time when household budgets are under pressure from runaway inflation.

Published in Dawn, September 4th, 2022