(4 Feb 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Colombo, Sri Lanka – 4 February 2025
1. Various of Sri Lanka President Anura Kumara Dissanayake arriving at the 77th National Independence Day celebrations
2. Dissanayake hoisting the National flag
3. VIPs at the event
4. SOUNDBITE (Sinhala) Anura Kumara Dissanayake, Sri Lankan President:
“We have a journey to embark on together—for our economic freedom, for our socio-cultural freedom, and ultimately, to create the freedom necessary for us to live in this country with dignity as modern citizens. For generations, we have been divided and ruled not only through ethnic, religious, and caste divisions but also through the separation between political representatives and the people, institutional heads and their staff, passengers and public transport operators, government employees and the public seeking their services, teachers and students, and many other social structures. These deeply rooted disparities must be cleansed to purify our society. At the same time, we must reaffirm to ourselves that the foundations of all human relationships in the modern world should be built on human dignity, love, and compassion. Furthermore, as citizens of this country, we must ensure that respect and affection due to a person are not restricted due to disability, old age, illness, or any other limitation."
5. Men marching with the Sri Lankan flag
6. Various of military parade
7. Various of cultural dance
STORYLINE:
Sri Lanka marked it’s 77th Independence Day Tuesday with a military parade while the debt-stricken country’s newly elected President Anura Kumara Dissanayake pledged to heal economic woes and rebuild by the end of his five-year term.
Sri Lanka gained independence from the British empire in 1948 and suffered it’s worst economic crisis in 2022, forcing the island nation to declare bankruptcy.
It also suspended repayments on some $83 billion (USD) in domestic and foreign loans during a severe foreign exchange crisis that led to a severe shortage of essentials such as food, medicine, fuel and cooking gas, as well as hourslong power cuts.
The economic crisis led to a political upheaval and finally paved the way for Dissanayake’s party to win power four months ago.
On Tuesday, Dissanayake said that during his tenure, he would improve the living standards of all Sri Lankans, giving them opportunities to enjoy modern scientific and technological innovations.
At a ceremony in the capital Colombo, he urged all Sri Lankans to work collectively to win the economic, social and cultural freedom for the country.
Under Dissanayake’s leadership Sri Lanka is struggling to emerge from the bankruptcy by restructuring it’s debt.
When Sri Lanka declared bankruptcy, it sought the help of the International Monetary Fund which approved a $ 2.9 billion four-year bailout package in 2023, under which Sri Lanka was required to restructure it’s staggering debt.
In September, Sri Lanka announced that it has concluded difficult debt restructuring process, having reached agreements with bilateral, multilateral creditors and private bond holders, which gave the island nation credit improvements in nearly five years.
Through debt restructuring, Sri Lanka seeks to obtain a $ 17 billion debt service relief.
Sri Lanka’s crisis was largely the result of economic mismanagement combined with fallout from the pandemic, which along with 2019 terrorism attacks devastated its important tourism industry.
The coronavirus crisis also disrupted the flow of remittances from Sri Lankans working abroad.
AP video shot by Jayampathi Palipane
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