Sri Lankan in living on the island here. For those of you that don't know, Sri Lanka has been going through a month of peaceful protests against the government's (willful and malicious) mismanagement. The call is for the current president, prime-minister, and the entirety of the parliament to resign.

The protesters themselves have three huge protest camps:

• The "GotaGoGama" - the original protest in the capital city in front of the Presidential Secretariat (the former parliament). The name roughly translates to "Gota Go-Home Village". They have been encamped at the area for a month now, with solar-power, libraries, water, toilets, and food (basically everything needed to do a 24x7 protest).
• The "HoruGoGama" - a second protest in front of the entrance to the parliament (surrounded by a moat and accessible by a bridge). The name roughly translates to "Thieves-Go-Home Village". The protest was smaller, but was disbanded after intimidation from dirt-bike special-forces resulted in police restraining said special-forces officers.
• The "MynaGoGama" - a second protest in front of the prime-minister's official residence ("Temple Trees"). The name roughly translates to "Old-Fart Go-Home Village". The protest is smaller and more recent.

Yesterday (May 9th 2022) was absolutely eventful. Prior to the events the president (in his dictator fashion) announced a State of Emergency and cancelled vacations of all military personnel.

On the day of the events the prime-minister (Mahinda Rajapaksha, well loved because he stopped our 30 year civil-war) called over "sympathizers" to "Temple Trees" via multiple buses. After a fiery speech, these "sympathizers" attacked the "MynaGoGama".

The "sympathizers" destroyed the makeshift huts made of scaffolding (a standard method of makeshift huts in SL), destroyed several laptops (the protesters are young university students), and destroyed all the food.

The attacks were meant to provoke the protesters so that the army could move in (previous attempts to infiltrate the protesters failed when the protesters refused to follow the infiltrators), a lot of people were attacked inhumanely, including an incident where a "sympathizer" man attacked a woman savagely. The police did not intervene and were in fact seen giving the "sympathizer" groups an escort to the protest camps. Multiple protesters (over 130 of them) were hospitalized.

Once the "sympathizers" were done with "MynaGoGama" they proceeded to the "GotaGoGama" and began to attack that camp. They were only able to destroy a few tents before being captured by the camp and flung into the Beria Lake (one of the most polluted lakes in the country). The protesters also destroyed several of the vehicles used to transport the "sympathizers" and threw them into the lake.

How did your average Joe/Jane react: They. Did. Not. Like. The. Attack. On. The. Protesters.

After the attack there was a curfew announced "for public safety". The outlying towns and cities weren't going to take it. Civilians setup blockades on every road in every city looking for "sympathizers". Some of them were intercepted and given a beating, some of the vehicles were destroyed and at some areas police and special-forces had to look on as civilians operated construction equipment to destroy vehicles.

In this chaos, multiple residences, businesses, offices and properties owned by those in or related to the ruling party were completely burned and destroyed:

• Ex-Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa (Carlton House in Weeraketiya & Medamulana Walawwa) - (rightly deserved)
• Rajapaksa Family (D. A. Rajapaksa Museum and memorials attacked / destroyed) - (rightly deserved)
• Ex-Minister Vidura Wickramanayake
• Ex-Minister Shehan Semansinghe (Residence)
• Ex-Deputy Speaker Ranjith Siyambalapitiya (Residence)
• Ex-Minister Rohitha Abeygunawardena (Office in Kalutara) - (rightly deserved)
• Ex-Minister Johnston Fernando (Offices in Kurunegala & Lillie Street, Colombo) - (rightly deserved)
• Ex-Minister Nimal Lanza (Residence in Negombo)
• Ex-Minister Bandula Gunawardena (Residence in Nugegoda) - (rightly deserved)
• Ex-Minister (Dr.) Ramesh Pathirana (Residence in Galle)
• Ex-Minister Arundhika Fernando (Residence in Wennappuwa)
• Ex-Minister (Professor) Channa Jayasumana (Residence in Anuradhapura)
• MP Prasanna Ranatunga (Residence in Udugampola)
• MP Duminda Dissanayake (Residence) - (rightly deserved)
• MP S. M. Chandrasena (Residence)
• MP Nuwan Athukorala (Residence)
• MP Sahan Pradeep (Residence in Kadawatha)
• MP Siripala Gamlath (Residence in Polonnaruwa)
• MP Kokila Gunawardena (Residence in Meerigama)
• MP Tissa Kutti Arachchi (Residence in Bandarawela)
• MP Chinthaka Mayadunne (Residence & Office in Puttlam)
• MP Anuradha Jayaratne (Office in Gampola)
• MP Gunapala Rathnasekara (Residence in Kurunegala)
• MP Santha Nishantha (Residence)
• MP Anupa Pasqual (Residence in Mathugama)
• MP Akila Saliya Ellawala (Residence in Balangoda)
• Moratuwa Mayor Saman Lal Fernando (Residence)
• Chairman of the Attanagalle Pradeshiya Sabha (Residence)
• Chairman of the Kotikawatte – Mulleriya Pradeshiya Sabha (Residence)
• Chairman of the Walallawita Pradeshiya Sabha (Residence)
• Chairman of the Elpitiya Pradeshiya Sabha (Residence)
• Mayor of Horana (Residence)

An additional victory was the complete destruction of Gnakka's properties (a hotel and her residence). Gnakka is the "chief-shaman" of the president and most of the Buddhist monks in the country say that she has a demon-assisted hold on the president.

Unfortunately a lot of people have been hurt and have died. One MP was killed along with his driver.

The curfew that only extended to Colombo is now island-wide, and there are reports as I type this that the family of the prime-minister are attempting to use the Air Force to escape the country (presumably to Uganda where they have been moving assets to).

You'll notice that I use the word "sympathizers" in quotes. There's a good reason. Most of these people are poor and destitute; they depend on government hand-outs to survive. A few of the "sympathizers" claimed that they were told their "Samurdhi Muddara" (our version of food stamps) would be invalidated if they didn't come. Most of the sympathizers were drunk and only came to their senses once they got dunked in the polluted lake.

As for the violence and burning. I personally do not condone them; these properties were built using taxpayer money. I'm also suspicious of who is attacking these properties as they could just be false-flags meant to bring the army into action. The dead minister to me seems like someone that actually cares for the people but is prevented from doing his job by everyone else. I'm supposing that he was killed off to prevent information leaking, and to pin the blame on the protesters. Additionally some of the attacked ministers are somewhat sympathetic to the people's problems, so there's the suspicion of false-flags there as well.

All in all, there's no telling how things will go. We may transition into a military junta (the Chief of Army is a Rajapaksha lackey), which will immediately result in a civil-war.

Additional aside: the current president Gothabaya Rajapaksha was a US citizen prior to the election. During the election there was a constitutional problem as to whether a non-Sri Lankan-citizen could even apply for the election (you can't, it automatically makes you ineligible). Prior to the appointment Gothabaya produced "evidence" that he was no longer a citizen of the US (which was shoddy at best). There's rumors that he's been drafted by the CIA/NSA as a plant in Sri Lanka.

More:

• This is made more plausible by the fact that he has completely destroyed our energy independence, and has attempted to make us dependent on "New Fortress Energy" a US corp for all our energy (electricity) needs.
• The usage rights to a British-era oil-storage complex have been sold 98% to India (meaning we have to buy back the oil on our land, on our own property, from India).
• Our country was known as the "granary of the east". We are country of farmers, and were capable of feeding the entire country self-sufficiently. But now we have to purchase rice from India and Myanmar. The ruling government changed the policy for fertilizer from chemical to conventional, resulting in decimation of yield, the oil shortage meant that farmers couldn't process their rice. As a result we're on track to shortages on our staple food, and the remaining food is becoming overpriced, making low-income families starve.
• The power cuts are destroying our IT industry, people are leaving (brain drain) and when that happens, India will be elated to pick up the slack, and our IT industry (which caters to the likes of London Stock Exchange, and Amazon) will be dead in the water with no hope of ever coming back.

Despite the turbulence, I welcome the change.

Anyone want any more information, feel free to comment.