Sri Lanka is in its worst crisis since independence from Britain in 1948. There is full revolt on the “tea island” in the Indian Ocean. One family gets a lot of the blame. How long have people been protesting? What has now developed into an uncontrolled uprising began as cautious protests in March. Rising fuel prices, lack of electricity and empty shops have taken people to the streets. In addition, prices have risen and risen in the last two years. To get ordinary goods, many have to wait hours in line. The power outages can last up to 13 hours. The protests grew in turn, and in the end the authorities thought that enough was enough. Police in riot gear stormed a rally on Friday, removing hundreds of protesters by truck. The harsh reaction led to the initially peaceful protests ending in a major political protest movement, which has forced a president, a prime minister and several members of the government to resign. What is the cause of the crisis? Terrorist attacks, the corona pandemic and economic mismanagement are cited as the causes of the crisis. In 2009, the island ended 25 years of war. The guerrilla movement The Tamil Tigers, who had fought for an independent state in the north, were militarily crushed. Sri Lanka conflict Photo: Str / Sri Lanka / REUTERS The island state of Sri Lanka became independent in 1948, after being a British colony from 1796 Changed name from Ceylon to Sri Lanka in 1972. Has around 20 million inhabitants The largest ethnic groups are Sinhalese (70 percent), Tamils (about 16 percent) and Muslims (8 percent) The Tamil Tigers / LTTE guerrillas (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) have been fighting since 1972 to establish a separate Tamil state in northeastern Sri Lanka. The armed struggle began for seriousness in 1983 More than 76,000 people were killed in the conflict In December 2001, a unilateral ceasefire was declared on both sides In February 2002, a formal ceasefire was signed. A Nordic observer corps, SLMM, monitored the agreement In April 2003, the LTTE broke the peace talks and accused the government of not fulfilling the ceasefire agreement. Since early 2006, there was in fact full war again 300 square kilometers On April 5, 2009, the military made it clear that they had occupied all of the LTTE’s areas, except for a security zone with about 100,000 civilians. On May 18, 2009, the leader of the Tamil Tigers, Velupillai Prabhakaran, was reported killed. On May 24, the Tigers declared that they had laid down their arms and ended the armed struggle. To unite north and south, President Mahinda Rajapaksa promised to build “a new” Sri Lanka. Violent development projects were launched – for borrowed money. Airports, port facilities and sports arenas rose. Many of them today are unused, empty or unfinished. The economy needed to change. Sri Lanka has long been a major exporter of tea, rubber, coconut, spices and clothing. The marching order from the government was now to produce more for the domestic market instead of increasing trade with the foreign market. The share of export goods decreased, while the share of imported goods increased. There was an imbalance between money coming in and money going out of the treasury. The country’s foreign exchange reserves declined slowly but surely. A customer buys vegetables in the dark due to. power outage in Colombo April 20, 2020. Photo: DINUKA LIYANAWATTE / Reuters At Easter 2019, a series of terrorist attacks from extremist Muslims hit. In the spring of 2020, the coronavirus came. Both led to an abrupt halt to the important tourism industry. From 2019 to 2021, revenues fell by 70 percent. On top of that, President Gotabaya Rajapak’s big tax cuts were promised. Taxes were more than halved. The same was true of the state’s annual tax revenue, which fell by more than $ 1.4 billion a year. At the same time, the government chose – in the midst of a nascent crisis – to repay foreign loans faster than agreed, which also eroded foreign exchange reserves. From having a foreign exchange reserve of 250 billion dollars a few years ago, it fell to 2.3 billion dollars at the end of October 2021. This led to the government having problems paying off its loans – and not least goods from abroad. As early as March 2020 – a year before the protests began – the government introduced a temporary import ban on “unnecessary” goods. This led to a shortage of everything from car tires to turmeric, which is an important ingredient in Sri Lankan cuisine. In November 2021, the first oil refinery was closed because there was no money to buy crude oil. Instead, a minimum of petrol and oil was to be imported. In recent months, people have been queuing up to buy diesel and petrol. Here from a gas station in Colombo on March 31st. Photo: ISHARA S. KODIKARA / AFP A few months later, the government chose to ban the import of fertilizers, in order to minimize the need for payments in foreign currency. Instead, the government decided that Sri Lanka would become the first nation with 100 percent organic farming. The decision led to the collapse of crops and food shortages. Foods that the inhabitants usually produced themselves now had to be bought from abroad. Large financial aid packages were adopted, to help people with the high food prices and provide compensation to the farmers. Then there was a full stop. The country was simply bankrupt, with no money to pay for either fuel, gas, food and medicine. Or meet their loan obligations. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa pictured together on August 9, 2020 when former President Mahinda took the oath as Prime Minister. Photo: Eranga Jayawardena / AP What are the consequences for Sri Lanka’s powerful family? The people’s anger has led to a president fleeing, a prime minister having to resign and almost the entire government resigning in protest. The political veteran Ranil Wickremesinghe, who was deployed to resolve the crisis, is now acting president, prime minister and finance minister. He has taken over the three government positions from the three brothers Gotabaya, Mahinda and Basil Rajapaksa. A fourth brother, Chamal, has been agriculture minister. The father of the brothers sat in his time in the National Assembly. The Rajapaksa family has been Sri Lanka’s most powerful in recent decades. They now have most of the responsibility for the island state’s collapse. Gotabaya and Mahinda Rajapaksa became internationally known when they withdrew from the negotiated ceasefire agreement with the Tamil Tigers, in which Norway, among others, had a central mediating role. Mahinda Rajapaksa, who was elected president in 2005, instead promised to crush the arch-enemy militarily. Mahinda elected her brother Gotabaya as defense minister. The former officer spearheaded the fierce war against the Tamil guerrilla movement and is accused by the UN of war crimes. In 2015, Mahinda’s second presidency was over, but already in 2019, the “family business” was back in the top positions. Gotabaya Rajapaksa took over as president. This despite the fact that he was under investigation for corruption. He also took his old job as defense minister. He gave the job of Prime Minister and a couple of other ministerial posts to the former president, while the other brothers became Minister of Finance and Minister of Agriculture. Mahinda’s one son became sports minister, the other chief of staff in the prime minister’s office. Chamal’s son became State Secretary for his father in the Ministry of Agriculture. Basil Rajapaksa (center) with his Secretary of State (right). Economic experts slaughter the economic policies pursued. Photo: ISHARA S. KODIKARA / AFP The Rajapaksa family has been known for bringing in family, friends and acquaintances to important positions. In the autumn of 2020, the constitution was amended so that the president now has the power to appoint judges and senior bureaucrats, remove prime ministers and ministers without going through the National Assembly. International economists are shaken by the economic incompetence, which has now led to the national economy on the verge of full collapse. A prominent Sri Lankan businessman tells international media that when the lights began to flash red in the national economy, he went to Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa. When the Minister of Finance could not answer very basic economic questions and contexts, and had no sensible answers as to how the government would solve the crisis, the conclusion was: “This is going to collapse.” Protesters rally the red carpets in the presidential residence in Colombo on Thursday 15 July. Photo: Rafiq Maqbool / AP What is happening now? Gotabaya Rajapaksa is in Singapore, although he was ordered not to leave the country. The president sent the resignation application only after he had fled – allegedly because he did not take the chance of losing his criminal immunity until he was out of the country. The other three, Mahinda, Basil and Chamal Rajapaksa, have been banned from traveling by the Supreme Court. The same is true of two former central bank governors. The new government is in negotiations with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund on loans. It requires the country to have a stable government that can promise an economic clean-up operation. This in turn will probably lead to higher taxes and interest rates – something that will not be popular in the current crisis situation. India has said it is willing to provide another emergency loan, while the G7 countries have promised that they may be willing to help reduce the debt burden. At the same time, the government has asked to buy cheap oil from Russia and Qatar. Prime Minister and Acting President Ranil Wickremesinghe will probably be the next person to resign as a result of the crisis. Photo: DINUKA LIYANAWATTE / Reuters Protesters demand that Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe also resign. They believe he has not done enough to quell the crisis and that he has too close ties to the Rajapaksa family. Wickremesinghe says he will comply with this, but only after parliament has elected a new president, who will appoint a new government.
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