Responding to the burning of his private residence, Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, has decried the actions of protesters as comparable to Hitler in a special statement.
"I had [paintings, Buddha statues and artworks], now nothing is left. They have been completely destroyed. Only Hitlerists would do things like that. There is background for that".
Prior to the burning of his residence, the Prime Minister had issued a statement on Twitter signalling that he would resign from his post.
In his statement, he maintained that he only took on the position because “the economy of the country had broken down”.
"I know the suffering people through. I have apologized for that. But we have to go forward together"
Wickremesinghe further bemoaned the loss of his library stating:
"The only house I had is burnt down. My greatest wealth was my library. 2500 books...I can't keep them forever. [My wife] and I had agreed to donate them. And there were paintings, some of them over 200 years old. Today I am left with only one"
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