of army personnel in 3 buses, a being bused to a location obviously to sort of a buffer up security. so a very, very angry mood, a reacting to that declaration of a curfew in the western province, an emergency island wide and deck. so give us a bit of background on what's been going on. the last 24 to 48 hours because the mood has, has changed a little bit. it feels the tension is increased very much. so in the last 24 hours or so, talk us through the various events basically, if things reached a peak on the 9th of july, obviously when that huge flood of people converged on colombo, the over end, the president's house, as well as the prime minister's official residences, and basically they said they were here to stay to the saw, the exit of president go toby roger boxer, or he did after that within

a day or so announced that he would be stepping down on the 13th of july that to day. but nobody knew what the mechanisms would be of the speaker did say that he had confirmed to him that he was willing to step down again, giving today the 13th of july is the date. but then this is what we have. we have the whole of yesterday there was motioning, hide and seek with protest as you're trying to get out of the country prison. go to bed roger boxer. and in the early hours of this morning, we had confirmation that he was flown out on a military plane to the motives that has just developed into the prime minister on vicar, missing a, a essentially putting out a statement that as acting president, he has declared this state of emergency island wide and curfew in the western province. so the key thing is, again, what flowers and what authority he has to do this. i just wanna, i'm highlight what we're seeing in the pictures are there to the right of your

screen. you can see what looks like smoke. we think that's t gas that's been fired outside the national radio and t v stations. now the people i see those are organizations as the official voice off the official government of the raja pac says. so that's one of the reasons why we're seeing many people gathered outside there and, and, and just to recap, the anger that has been growing in the last couple of hours has come from sort of it's, it's twofold, really fastly. we've seen president go to by roger pac sir, who was fled to the mold east. the news people waking up to that news this morning . and then very soon after that the prime minister run over come a singer declaring himself acting president, lot of anger on the streets because of that move because they have questions about the legality of, of, for whether he can actually do that. it less returned to me now give us

a bit more clarity about this, the, the legality of, of what the prime minister has done here. he is technically, from what i understand, speaking to a lawyer earlier, not actually allowed to call himself enacting president izzy. not unless he's officially appointed as acting president, either by the president or the chief justice is what we're hearing from constitutional experts. if you just look over my shoulder, the plumes of smoke, the tear gas volleys have started and that's what we're seeing. but fully a will stay as long as we can and did go ahead in this direction. but again, people, as you can see, the purpose is not running away. we're waiting, they had promised that they would not take it lightly, that they would not back down. if the government just ignores the wishes of the people, so that happening, but like going back to the legality. constitutional experts say that the prime

minister on no vicar missing her must be appointed as acting president before he can declare himself as such. so far, we don't have any indication that this has happened up, but again, the president gotta be roger boxer. one report says that he left his resignation letter behind. and once that becomes official, then automatically the prime minister becomes acting president if he has actually sent that resignation letter orders, he must be appointed, which has not happened as far as the public news. so in that sense, what people essays, they don't, i did speak to a source in the prime minister's office. and i was told that what they're using is a section 40 of the constitution, which says the president, the prime minister, can act and declare himself acting president if the president is unable to carry out his duties, but constitutional experts, as i said, have questioned that. how does the protesters feel about the fact that go to buy

a roger packs a has fled because they have been attempts to keep the raja boxes in the country. and presumably, if they're now out of the country, they won't be able to face any sort of accountability for what they've done and what the protesters see them. having done i'll start answering that question with the eye on the back of the to get starts heading. this way we're gonna have to move, but that is one of the main things causing the anger for these people holding the raj boxes to account. now as long as prison go top, a roger fucks a was president in the country. he had presidential immunity and that might be the reason why he was so keyed to flee the country before that resignation takes effect . because there might have been concern that the moment that let a physically handed over, he loses all cook or protection of immunity. and that he might have been detained, blatchley face charges and accountability. so there is

a little bit of anger among the people alone of them, ordinary folk who have come here a lot of angry young people that say enough is enough. they've looted the country, brought it to its knees, and they must be the price they must be held accountable. i just want to touch or refer back to some of the live pictures we're seeing or that the wobbly image on the left. so clearly because there is so much going on, people thousands of people protesting police military using a t gas. the see water being slashed on some of that take ass, which is despising some of the crowds. you can see violence being used. there actually are people, military officers being and pushing back on people are a lot of smoke there. a lot of this anger or something we've not seen before. actually in colombo, orange sher lanka. the protest so far have been very much peaceful in the months

that the protest have been going on. you can see a man, they're throwing stones anger, clearly at a tipping point here. and let's go back to colombo and me now, try and give us an explanation for this, this, this tipping point. why? why suddenly off to such a long time of peaceful protest a, we suddenly seen such a change in mood. i think desperation is the best word to describe it of both from the side of the roger boxes and now a seemingly beneath good ronald vicar, missing her, trying to hold on and claim this legitimacy as acting president. that's why it's, you know, nothing to lose a pull out the troops put them on, on, on the ground, or declare the state of emergency that are essentially some details of that state of emergency where the security forces have been off to sort of arrest people traveling to columbia in laurie's things like that. so it's obviously

a really desperate attempt to control the protestant, to try and disperse them to try and prevent them from organizing. because no longer are guns and weapons and bullets are able to scare the protesters. they have seen it, there have been people have been injured in recent these. but by far and large, that anger, that determination to see this to its end, not to back down, not to sort of be once again, a sort of taken for a ride by their politicians and by their leaders. that is the driving force. so we're seeing that and. 6 in the face of that this kind of over the top response. 5 i told you i saw battens, i saw a shoes right. she is. and to ride year tear gas mask. and automatic weapons in the hands of those special task force personnel who just went by here. so are definitely sort of armed to the teeth and dangerous as far as the professor as

a concern. but the protest has on their side, have a determination that they are not backing down. now it's not something we can actually seen these pictures, but i am receiving news on the wires here that some people, or at least one person has been put into an ambulance as people continue demonstrating near the office compound of shlang. cuz prime minister this wednesday, this is again because the police have been approaching the crowd. the smoke, as, as we said, has been as a result of tear gas that's left many people, coughing, and that water that we've been seen splashing around less because they're just trying to clear that tear gas off their faces is, is also worth a recapping that in recent days, many of the protesters have made the vows to occupy many of the official buildings until all the leaders a gone. i mean we, we saw some remarkable images in the last few days,

people flocking to the presidential palace. it was as if it was a tourist attraction, swimming in the pool, and a sort of been doing the payments that the, that the need is have clearly been enjoying for very long time modeling at the paintings, lounging on the beds and just just a feeling, a sense of how much resentment that there is some anger in the people that their lives are that they have been reduced to the lack of food, the lack of fuel, while the leaders of the country are living in these opulence palaces. now tell us a bit about what's been happening in the last few days. so basically starting on that 9 to sort of d day, you had this sort of sea of humanity literally converge on the capital. but the mean targets was the president official residence and then the prime minister's

official residence. now it's not as if, you know, this was like the lap of luxury but very much symbols of power, symbols of leadership. and that's why they, they became the targets. these properties have a long history. they have been around for many, many decades, and some of them are some of the contents are priceless. and that's why we heard when you have this major amount of people, not just over running it, but in the following days, a streaming, we had q upon q of people waiting to see for themselves the way the leaders lived and worked. and to the point that the archaeology department came in and warned people to be careful because these did contain priceless objects, art of antiques, obviously belonging to the state. and in fact, some of the protest is very keen to even tell the visitors, look, this is our money. it's the public money, it's our resources. make sure you don't damage it. so that is that kind of euphoria

that, that followed, that overrunning on the 9th. but again, there was always this factor that go tabio. roger puck said needed to formalize his, his exit not just was he evacuated to safety, ours before the order of overrunning of his residence. but subsequently he went under ground. nobody knew where he was. 5 save for a couple of statements that he made through the speaker, the key thing saying that he was going to resign on the 13th. but here's the 13th. we've had the prime minister declaring himself president in terms of acting president. and we still are to hear from the president, not a very responsible thing to do, given that it leaves for the creation of a power vacuum of uncertainty among the people. a belligerence and anger that is not helpful to the current mode in the current situation. mean out and tell us what, what will happen if that resignation less it does appear. if in it it is for me

produce to me, you talk about political vacuum, what is expected to happen next? well, one thing that we've seen is that in this kind of interim period of that is a sort of an uncertain dean, the country, yes, they know they have pushed for this for the president to go. but is there what is the next step who is going to take over the prime minister as we have heard for weeks has no credibility. he's a man that was voted out of parliament. he was unable to protect his own seat at the last general elections. he just entered the parliament through the back door. this time by being appointed on what's called a nationalist, where the ponti that he belongs to get to sort of a proportional seat. and that is how, despite him being voted out, he got back into parliament. so for the people of this country to envision that someone of that sort of elk is able to assume the role of prime minister. and then

almost be like within seeing distance of the presidency is an absolute travesty of justice. so in that sense, that's what they're wondering what next? now obviously the speaker has been holding a meetings with party leaders of opposition. parties to decide away forward. what are they going to do? and they had drawn, laid down the road map that with the president are expected to resign today. the 13th that on the 15th parliament would meet on the 18th that nominations for the post of president would be called from within parliament. and then from those nominations, they would hold a secret ballot and elect a president. that's parliament representatives would do it on the 20th, but until such time that happens, people are waiting and one can't ignore the fact that there are unruly elements. there are some sort of unsavory elements, sort of muscling in and the option of them starving, trouble for that or names and agendas can not be ignored. so if any of these

leaders actually has the interest of this country at heart and the interest of the people that are, they will quickly to restore a certain semblance of order of knitting institutions, woke of structures work. so things don't go out of control beyond a point that they can be cured back quickly. now remind us earth any new leader, what are the challenges that they have to face one of the challenges of the country at the moment? that the key thing right now with sri lanka, faces is the economic crisis and as we speak, you can see that some of these protests that are about the dom on life are moving these barricade. they're trying to move them out of the way. so they're not used to block the roads, they're all sort of putting their hands together and moving them out of the wave of as you can see that activity just going on around me. ok. so in that sense,

everybody sort of getting stuck in there. ah, if i can to 6 been what was going on? i saw that is that is where things stand. so people are trying to figure out what the next couple of steps are before things blow out of control and out of hand. mcnelson mckee? yes. escalation, if you like, the t gas that's being used and so on is, is being used by the military. what exactly is the military's position here in sher lanka, who did they support so basically the military has always towards the line. unlike in a number of countries within the region and in the broader areas where the ministry has got involved and power struggles and things like that. sure not as military has by far too large a been available to whoever who has been in power and go to bed. roger pox of the

president of bid, a special job of cultivating the ministry being a former military man himself. 5 he did a cultivate, especially the particular arms of the military, the, the regiment that he belong to. a world very trusted and placed in a number of senior positions. but the military generally, even yesterday, when we had that across our flying him out the air force today we had a statement saying they were acting on the request of the ministry of defense and that they were carrying the executive president of the country. so sticking by and if i can just show you those special, forced our social task force personnel i was talking about. here's another contingent of them. we've seen about 4 or 5 of them. they've got right gear helmets . many of them have battens into hands gas masks. they're carrying the surgery shield and they're actually moving ahead if you can just see if you can just see

beyond that, you'll actually see and that's them. yeah. we position. there's a lot of them. yeah, we don't really think mina, we and so as you can see, basically coming in and we're getting some breaking news me now, which i want to put to you is coming through on the edge of wise here that are according to the parliamentary speaker. ah, he's announced that the president got to buy a raj. epoxy has a, has given prime, the prime minister power to carry out presidential responsibilities. that news just just just breaking this for lang. the shoreline can pm victim a singer has been appointed acting president, and that coming from the parliamentary speaker, i mean, what do you make of that? well, if indeed that of the sort of,

of authority has been given to the prime minister. then according to the constitutional experts that i have a sort of touch base with earlier. then prime minister ronald vicar missing her, is acting legitimately. but it all depends on whether the president has actually empowered the prime minister and appointed him as acting president. the question is, then did he do it before he left the country? which means if he's acting president, what did go toby raj, epoxy leave as then? did he have presidential immunity? then did he have the authority to scramble and military aircraft to follow him out of the country? so there seems to be a lot of questions unanswered. but if we are to take what the speaker is being quoted as saying that he has a pointed runner, the grimacing as acting president, it would seem that he has of the authority to declare that emergency to,

to pull the message out on its streets, on the streets, but that is obviously the official position, the sort of position in terms of his role, where he many people hear say he has nor legitimacy. he should be stepping aside and letting someone else take on the job. that is what the key thing is and that is what's causing the anger here. and we've been talking about the legality of, of that move. i mean, given we're now hearing this from the parliamentary speaker and not from the horses mouth, if you like an official letter from the president go to buy a bunch of pox. i will still be questions around this. this move well, especially where the protest is, are concerned. they really are very, very cynical, especially when this comes from a speaker who are 2 days ago, told one media outlet that the president was in a nearby country that he would come to the country on wednesday to resign. and

literally an odd or too late to said, whoops, i made a mistake, he's actually in the country. so whatever announcements come from him are going to be tainted with the sudden sense of cynicism, of disbelief. but until such time, either they see an official document. um, actually approving the fact that as he says president go, toby roger boxer has appointed runner, vicar missing as acting president. okay. now we'll leave that for now minutes there for us outside deep prime ministers office. we're not sure exactly where the prime minister is, but that news just coming in at that time, the parliamentary speaker of shore lanka has announced or said that that president go to buy a roger pox a has given the prime minister power to carry out presidential responsibility so we were still not quite clear about the legality of this. busy and less returned to

our correspond step vatton, who was previously out outside the t v and radio stations. i'm not sure if i still where you are, steph, bring us up to date with what's happening, where you are. no, i met them. i'm at the moment at the prime minister and you said you were out here as you can see, i guess free. oh gosh. it's a very hectic situation here. is some pretensions be saw being carried away insurance because of the tear gas. oh, that's been you'll see a by the security forces. they're perfecting their prime minister's office, which is right here in front of us. this is a very large, oh, i can't even tell me how many people are here, but they all came to the office. and it goes missing, go because they want him to resign. i resign as well,

the residence resignation. people are still waiting for the official resignation of their president as well. but that's not all the prime minister to go. that's what i'm all these people here are the man they got released back to florida is using force right now. it hasn't been the case in the last couple of days. that was all very peaceful. but at the moment you can see the slope is not coming up from the crowd over there. the i guess is being shot at protesters by the security forces here in colombo, at the prime minister's office. there's a lot of for hectic go situation there. people running away from the clash knots of people screaming sounds saying they're very angry, very angry that the police are not using violence against them. and they really are aiming now. i have been asking for the president's resignation for months already. they're now asking also for the prime minister. they have are for his resignation

before, but he is still here in the country. they are worried that he might be taking a minute to minutes. we are leaving a chasing them out to me and have a way a i saying that we are not in charge any longer. it's a complete unethical. had them all my legal limbo. that's a lot of guys currently it, people are here. got it. not taking away people, i've been paying church by to to you guys. so i'm not sure i can't see from where i am,

how much police is still there. but it was very symbolic military officers. so just leaving, leaving being pushed away by the crowds and, and steph presumably, so they are needing the prime minister's office. and you are outside the prime minister's office, which is where many of these protests as a gathered. so what does that look like? is going to happen next. are they trying to get into the prime minister's office? oh, well, they're standing right in front of it. i can't see how far they got inside of the building right now, and especially now the soldiers have got, well, we need to look a bit more to the front. see what is happening there. but the very likely that they are going to stay until i have learned that from the prime minister, a thing that he is actually the thing that he is officially residing. but there hasn't been any word from him. the spokesman of the prime minister has cited

a few hours ago that there will be more explanation about why he is now calling himself acting president. he said this legal explanation will follow later because i want to restore order 1st. and this is what they're doing. this is what they mean by a is a huge crowd is more than thousands of people are here. huge crowd standards that see if whether it's worth to be saying. yep. yeah. indeed, i just want to say please do, do keep safe. it doesn't look a bit more common now where you are, but do keep safe. it is a fast moving bonus situation. i mean, it's worth pointing out that we all your information on the wires. sorry goodness, go on. you can see here. people love. yeah,

people affected by the to your gas people, not bringing water over them to clear this to you guys from their face though. so that's what's happening here right now, but i should say it's an old folding story. so we'll state boats and officially said, but what we're hearing on the news wires is that prime minister run, no vicar, missing a has has just been appointed acting president. that's according to the parliament speaker. is that something that protestors are aware of or reacting to at all? well, they may be aware of it or they might not because they have been here since the last couple of hours already asking for his resignation. and they will be probably angry for sure to hear that a pointed acting precedent becomes exactly why they're here to try to avoid this. i'm trying to go away from the crowd a little bit now. so that's oh,

what their anger has cost and they really don't feel that there's a legal reasons for the prime minister to be acting president right now because they say we haven't seen the official resignation. i've got a biology box i yet also the president didn't appoint them, acting president when he left flat the country in the early hours on this air force, playing together with his wife and 2 bodyguards to them all these basically and left a symbol here, 3 long ago, so that's where the prime minister in the clear to states burge, okay, is also the will be a step step will leave you that for now. it sounds like you will. so losing it, but of connection there. get to a more safer place if you can. mental fernandez, less return now to her. she's also in colombo. i don't know if you were able to hear or see what we were talking about with steph. there. the military just working

out of the prime minister's office and she walking away from the protesters is something some lab and where you are oh, well, i'm actually on the, on the other side of the road. and if you can see, we could just pan this way. you can see this big group of young people just walking . now they've just turned up to walk essentially towards that prime minister's residence, which i was pointing to. um, just a little while ago about this are some of the university students or they're still many of them streaming through. so all marching on the pres, prime minister's office. this is a giving way to that anger and frustration. now that they hear that run a vicar missing her has a assume those powers is acting president and declared this state of cove. you in the western province and emergency island wide and obviously you, you've been talking to processes. you've been speaking to people. you've been in

the heart of the story for many, many months, recap for us what people have been going through and why frustrations have reached this point. this is obviously not something that's down to just the recent weeks or months that for a long, long time here in sri lanka are things in terms of mismanagement of corruption, of kick back have really weakened and undermined the country the economy. but what has really been stark in recent months is that has depleted reserves. that country has run out of foreign currency to order, essential food, medicine, fuel, cooking, gas. so people are really struggling, it's because essentially these are sort of key things are unavailable, even if they have the money, they can purchase it, they're spent weeks, sometimes of months actually without cooking. guess for example.