Sri Lankan security forces raided a protest camp occupying government grounds in the main city of Colombo early on Friday (July 22) and cleared out a section of it.
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Read the full story here: https://gulfnews.com/world/asia/sri-lankan-forces-raid-anti-government-protest-camp-as-new-president-takes-office-1.1658436364351
See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos
Read more Gulf News stories here: https://bit.ly/2HLJ2km
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#UAEnews #srilanka #protest
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NewsTranscript
00:00Hundreds of soldiers in Raqqa have torn down a protest camp in Sri Lanka's capital. Police
00:07say nine people were arrested during the operation in the early hours of Friday.
00:13A police spokesperson said the operation was launched to recover the Presidential Secretariat
00:17from the protesters, as they, quote, have no legal right to hold it. The action comes
00:24just a day after Sri Lanka's new president, Ranjit Ramasinghe, was sworn in.
00:29Many had feared there would be a crackdown, as he is seen as an ally of ousted President
00:33Gautam Baya Rajapaksa. The camp was set up on government grounds in April by protesters
00:39enraged with the country's economic collapse.
00:45After day broke on Friday morning, there was a heavy security presence at the protest site,
00:49with riot police manning barricades. One protester who remained told Reuters what had happened.
00:56Last night, we normally stay there. Government troops came, 2,000 troops came here, and they
01:06blocked the whole roads, put the barriers, and destroyed our tent and our property. And
01:15they wanted to rescue the presidential secretary's office, and they beat us really badly.
01:26Angry at the pre-dawn raids, dozens of union members took to the streets in protest on
01:31Friday. They chanted anti-government slogans and called for the release of the detained
01:36activists.
01:40Meanwhile, in a sign of how desperate things have become, Sri Lanka's navy on Thursday
01:45intercepted a fishing trawler full of people trying to flee the country. The navy said
01:50all 33 people on board had been detained on suspicion of attempting to illegally migrate.
02:06For more UN videos visit www.un.org