Human rights groups condemn ‘shameful’ treatment of Sri Lankan protesters

Police commandos stand guard at a barricade outside the president’s office in Colombo, Sri Lanka (Eranga Jayawardena/AP)

International human rights groups are urging Sri Lanka’s new president to immediately order security forces to cease all unlawful use of force against protesters who have been demonstrating against the government for months over the country’s economic meltdown.

A day after President Ranil Wickremesinghe was sworn in, hundreds of armed troops raided a protest camp outside the president’s office in the early hours of Friday, attacking demonstrators with batons in a move that Human Rights Watch said “sends a dangerous message to the Sri Lankan people that the new government intends to act through brute force rather than the rule of law”.