How Sri Lanka Protests Led to a

 “Reawakening of the Citizen” 

& Pushed Out President & Prime Minister

TOPICS

• Sri Lanka
• Economy
• Protests

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GUESTS

• Bhavani Fonseka

  human rights lawyer and activist participating in the protests in Colombo.

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LINKS

• Bhavani Fonseka on Twitter
• Centre for Policy Alternatives

Thousands of protesters in Sri Lanka have stormed the homes of the president and prime minister and are refusing to leave until they officially resign, as the president faces accusations of corruption that bankrupted the country and led to a massive economic crisis. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is set to formally step down Wednesday and has reportedly tried to flee the country. We go to the capital Colombo to speak with Bhavani Fonseka, a human rights lawyer and a senior researcher at the Centre for Policy Alternatives, who has been participating in the protest. She describes the months of peaceful protest that led to this moment. “Considering the crisis and considering the demands of the people that there has to be a change, we need to look to general elections as soon as the environment is conducive,” notes Fonseka.

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Transcript

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: We begin today’s show in Sri Lanka, where President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has reportedly made a failed attempt to flee the country ahead of his resignation set for Wednesday. Agence France-Presse reports the president may now use a navy patrol craft to flee the island nation, which is facing a major economic crisis and saw thousands of protesters storm the president’s home Saturday and set fire to the prime minister’s residence. Protesters are still occupying the president’s home until he formally resigns. Rajapaksa is immune from arrest while he’s still president, and may be trying to leave in order to avoid being detained. He’s accused of bankrupting Sri Lanka with massive corruption and economic mismanagement and also of war crimes during his time as defense minister.

After his resignation, an interim all-party unity government is expected to lead the country. Sri Lanka’s Parliament will meet Friday, and a new president is set to be elected by the members of the Parliament next week.

For more, we go to the capital Colombo to speak with Bhavani Fonseka, a human rights lawyer, senior researcher at the Centre for Policy Alternatives in Colombo. She’s been participating in the protests. Her recent article is headlined “Sri Lanka’s Crisis and the Power of Citizen Mobilization.”

Welcome to Democracy Now! Bhavani, thank you so much for being with us. If you can start off by talking about how these protests began, now the protesters occupying the prime minister’s and the president’s home, demanding both resign? Talk about the power of citizen protest.

BHAVANI FONSEKA: Thank you, Amy, for having me. I mean, Sri Lanka is facing quite the remarkable period. At one level, we have an unprecedented political and economic crisis, but at another we’ve seen citizens peacefully protesting for months, asking for change, a change in political culture, a change in the political leadership and, basically, political accountability. So there is a real reawakening of the citizen, and it’s quite remarkable to see the numbers that have come out to the streets peacefully protesting over demands.

But what was even more remarkable was the numbers that came out on Saturday, on the 9th of July. And this was in a context where many don’t have fuel to travel, so many walked for hours to get to the protest site. And they occupied the protest site. And unlike the other days of protests, they were able to enter the presidential secretariat, the presidential palace and the official residence of the prime minister. And they are now occupying these spaces 'til the president resigns and the prime minister resigns. But so, it's quite dynamic and fluid days in Sri Lanka, but it’s all centered in this backdrop of citizens’ mobilization and the citizen — the power of the people to bring in change.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Bhavani Fonseka, if you could talk a little bit about the roots of the crisis? There’s a lot of international press coverage of what’s happening now, but there’s been little attention to how the crisis evolved, and especially in terms of whatever financial debt the country owes to outsiders. There was an International Monetary Fund group that visited the country at the end of June?

BHAVANI FONSEKA: Yes. So, Sri Lanka is in heavy debt. And that goes back — it predates this government, the government of Gotabaya Rajapaksa. The debt is really going back to different governments. And the debt has got to a point where now Sri Lanka is facing bankruptcy. And they announced a default a couple of months ago. So, really, there is massive debt.

But also it’s related to the mismanagement of this government. Now, in 2019 onwards, after Gotabaya Rajapaksa took office, there’s been several policy decisions that led to this present crisis. One was the tax cuts in 2019 that significantly impacted the revenue of the government. In 2021, there was an overnight ban on chemical fertilizer, which has impacted the agriculture sector and food security. And, of course, we had the challenges with the COVID, the pandemic, but also, more recently, with the Ukraine-Russian war, so those have also impacted. But largely it’s been domestic policies and mismanagement of this government which has led to an economic crisis. And now we are facing also a political crisis and political instability.

So, all this has resulted in a situation where many in Sri Lanka are facing severe hardships, getting essential items, long power cuts, long queues to get fuel. I mean, we are at the moment having long queues where people have to stay for days, three, four days, just to get some petrol and diesel. So that is the hardship that’s faced by many people, and it’s impacted most in Sri Lanka. And it has resulted in extreme anger and frustration among the people.

So, the public mobilization, demanding for accountability, demanding for change, stems from this economic crisis and the mismanagement. But now it’s become a political crisis, as well, so it’s a combined situation in Sri Lanka. And now it’s also there is a situation where we are seeing an unfolding humanitarian crisis, so multiple challenges on the ground.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Now, both the president and the prime minister have said they will resign, but they have not yet done so. How do you see events unfolding over the next few days? And who is most likely to run a caretaker government?

BHAVANI FONSEKA: So, this is a very worrying dynamic. You know, you would think with all the people peacefully protesting and all the developments over the last few days — but over the last few months, really — that the message would be — you know, it would be clear, that they are asking for the resignation of the president, and they’re asking for the resignation of the prime minister. Now, I would have thought any government would have heard this message and resigned immediately, but we are at a situation where the president has said he will resign tomorrow —

AMY GOODMAN: Bhavani Fonseka, I’m looking at an article by Reuters, “How a band of activists helped bring down Sri Lanka’s government.” It says, “In June, a few dozen activists started meeting regularly at a seaside tented camp in Colombo for hours-long sessions to think up ways to revive Sri Lanka’s flagging protest movement.

“The group, which included a Catholic priest, a digital strategist and a popular playwright, succeeded beyond their wildest hopes.

“Within weeks, hundreds of thousands of people descended on Colombo. After initially clashing with police, protesters occupied key government buildings and residences, forcing President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his prime minister to promise to step down.”

What is your assessment? Would you agree this band of activists, the Catholic priest, digital strategist, popular playwright, gathering together, and soon hundreds of thousands of people are now occupying the prime minister and president’s residences and demanding they resign?

BHAVANI FONSEKA: Well, it’s quite remarkable what we are seeing, you know? Different sectors, communities coming together. I mean, this we have not seen in Sri Lanka’s past, and Sri Lanka has a rich history of protest. But this kind of mobilization is quite unique. And the fact that the protests have been there for now several months — this is not something that just happened in the last couple of days, but over the months people have persistently come out, and largely peacefully coming out and demanding for change. So, that’s quite something.

And the result is, in May, we had the then-prime minister resigning. In April, we had the Cabinet resigning. So we saw results. But we also have seen the president holding onto office, despite all the protests, despite the clear message for him to go home. So, now with the announcement that the president is going to leave on Wednesday the 13th, we hope that he keeps to his word, because if he doesn’t leave, there will be further instability.

But his resignation alone is not going to satisfy the protesters and the people of Sri Lanka. They are asking for the resignation of the prime minister, as well, and that there is a new caretaker government that happens. And we need to also think of next steps. You know, a caretaker government can serve a particular time period, but considering the crisis and considering the demands of the people that there has to be a change, we need to look to general elections as soon as the environment is conducive to have the elections. So, a lot of things are on the table. A lot of things, I hope, can move forward in terms of addressing the present crisis and ensuring there is stability.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to thank you, Bhavani Fonseka, for being with us, human rights lawyer and senior researcher at the Centre for Policy Alternatives in Colombo, participating in the protests. We’ll link to your article, “Sri Lanka’s Crisis and the Power of Citizen Mobilization.” Of course, we’ll continue to follow what’s happening in Sri Lanka.

As the Pentagon authorizes another $400 million for the fight in Ukraine, after break, we will go to Joe Lauria, editor-in-chief of Consortium News, about the pressure on independent media to follow a single approved narrative on the Ukraine war. Stay with us.

Watch | Sri Lanka Is Now Seeing Peaceful, Non-Violent Expression of People’s Power

Analyst Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu tells Karan Thapar that the Sri Lankan peoples' belief in democracy remains intact and will be proven whenever the country has an opportunity to hold early elections.

Karan Thapar and Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu.

Karan Thapar

Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, one of Sri Lanka’s most highly regarded political analysts, says the county is experiencing “a peaceful non-violent expression of people’s power”. He said the situation is similar to the people’s power revolution witnessed in the Philippines in 1986 when Ferdinand Marcos was driven from office and replaced by Corazon Aquino.

However, Saravanamuttu is particularly concerned by the fact that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has only, although on two occasions, verbally said he will resign on July 13 but so far has not sent his resignation in writing to the speaker, which would formalise it. Worrying and disturbing doubts, therefore, continue about the president’s intentions. It’s even possible that he may choose to leave the country, from his present hiding-place at Katunayaka Air Base near Bandaranaike International Airport, claiming he is going abroad for medical treatment and appointing a caretaker president in his place. However, Saravanamuttu adds, that would not be acceptable to the protestors. They want nothing less than Rajapaksa’s complete resignation as well as that of the present Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

In a 25-minute interview with Karan Thapar for The Wire, Saravanamuttu, who is executive director of Sri Lanka’s Centre for Policy Alternatives, said it’s not clear who will succeed Rajapaksa as president in the event he resigns. There’s speculation it could be the Leader of the largest opposition party, Sajith Premadasa, himself the son of a former president, whose SJB party has only around 50 seats. He would, therefore, need the support of breakaway factions of the Rajapaksa’s SLPP party, which has a majority on its own in the Sri Lankan Parliament. Another possibility being speculated is that Premadasa could be elected president by July 20, if the present timetable laid down by the speaker of the Sri Lankan assembly is followed, with a dissident member of the SLPP as prime minister.

However, because of the uncertainty and the lack of obvious and clear-cut choices for the new president, Saravanamuttu agrees that there’s a danger the government could completely collapse without any coherent replacement, thus pushing the country towards political anarchy. In that event, one cannot completely rule out the possibility of a military takeover. Already, the Sri Lankan Army Chief has taken the unusual step of calling for calm and peace, which some have interpreted as a possible indication that he might harbour Bonapartist tendencies.

Asked about the widespread belief, after Saturday’s scenes when thousands stormed the President’s Palace, his Secretariat and the Prime Minister’s House and later, in the evening, set fire to the Prime Minister’s personal home, that Sri Lankans appear to have lost faith in both politics and politicians, Saravanamuttu said he believes their faith in democracy remains intact and will be proven whenever the country has an opportunity to hold early elections to elect a proper full-term government.

However, Saravanamuttu said what is undeniable is that Sri Lanka has “lost a decade”. He said whilst it’s possible to look down the road for up to a month or so, it’s not feasible or credible to try and look further and speak about what sort of country Sri Lanka will be six months from now, leave aside a year.

The Fall of the House of Rajapaksa

Pradeep Dambarage/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Jul 12, 2022

BRAHMA CHELLANEY

Through a combination of authoritarianism, nepotism, cronyism, and hubris, the Rajapaksa family weighed down Sri Lanka’s economy with more debt than it could possibly bear. The country’s next leaders will have to address shortages of basic necessities, rebuild a wrecked economy, and reestablish the rule of law.


NEW DELHI – For much of nearly two decades, the four Rajapaksa brothers and their sons have run Sri Lanka like a family business – and a disorderly one, at that. With their grand construction projects and spendthrift ways, they saddled Sri Lanka with unsustainable debts, driving the country into its worst economic crisis since independence. Now, the dynasty has fallen.Politics

Mahinda Rajapaksa was instrumental in establishing the Rajapaksa dynasty. After becoming president in 2005, he ruled with an iron fist for a decade, attacking civil liberties, expanding presidential powers (including abolishing term limits), and making bad deal after bad deal with China. Throughout this process, he kept his family close, with his younger brother Gotabaya holding the defense portfolio.

But in 2015, Mahinda narrowly lost the presidential election, and the Rajapaksas were briefly driven from power. During that time, parliament restored the presidential term limit, ruling out another Mahinda presidency. Yet the family quickly devised a plan to restore their dynasty: Gotabaya would renounce his US citizenship and run for president.

Gotabaya was well-positioned to win. After all, he had been defense secretary in 2009 when Mahinda ordered the final military offensive against the Tamil Tiger rebels, bringing a brutal 26-year civil war to a decisive end. With that, the Rajapaksa brothers emerged as heroes among Sri Lanka’s Sinhalese majority.

To be sure, the final offensive killed as many as 40,000 civilians and sparked international accusations of war crimes. The United Nations described it as a “grave assault on the entire regime of international law.” According to Sarath Fonseka, the wartime military commander, Gotabaya ordered the summary execution of surrendering rebel leaders. In California, where he was previously domiciled, Gotabaya faces civil charges over alleged war crimes.

But the Rajapaksa brothers simply presented themselves as hardheaded custodians of Sinhalese interests. And, thanks largely to his ethno-nationalist credentials, Gotabaya won the 2019 election – at which point he immediately appointed Mahinda as his prime minister. Mahinda then appointed his two sons, his other two brothers, and a nephew as ministers or to other government positions.

The same year, 277 people were killed, and hundreds more wounded, in bombings carried out by Islamist extremists on Easter Sunday. The attack highlighted tensions that had been simmering since 2009: though the military offensive marginalized the Hindu-majority Tamils, the war’s end sowed the seeds of religious conflict between the Buddhist-majority Sinhalese and Sri Lanka’s Muslims, who constitute one-tenth of the country’s population. The Easter Sunday terrorist bombings provided new ammunition for the Rajapaksas to whip up Sinhalese nationalism.

Beyond deepening ethnic and religious fault lines, Gotabaya followed his brother in establishing an imperial presidency, exemplified by the passage in 2020 of a constitutional amendment expanding the president’s power to dissolve the legislature. And he helped to push Sri Lanka further into the economic death spiral that his brother had helped create, not least through his dealings with China.

During Mahinda’s rule, as China shielded the Rajapaksas from war-crime charges at the UN, it won major infrastructure contracts in Sri Lanka and became the country’s leading lender. Debt to China piled up, incurred largely over the construction of monuments to the Rajapaksa dynasty in the family’s home district of Hambantota.

Examples include “the world’s emptiest” airport, a cricket stadium with more seats than the district capital’s population, and a $1.4 billion seaport that remained largely idle until it was signed away to China in 2017 on a 99-year lease. The most extravagant China-backed project is the $13-billion “Port City,” which is being built on land reclaimed from the sea close to the center of the capital, Colombo.

China’s modus operandi is to cut deals with strongmen and exploit their countries’ vulnerabilities to gain a strategic foothold. China’s larger aims in Sri Lanka were suggested in 2014, when two Chinese submarines made separate unannounced visits to Colombo, docking at a newly built container terminal owned largely by Chinese state companies.

So, China gained leverage over a country located near some of the world’s most important shipping lanes, and Sri Lanka became increasingly mired in debt, including “hidden debt” to China from loans whose public disclosure was prohibited by their terms. But hubris prevented the Rajapaksas from recognizing the looming crisis. On the contrary, they enacted a sweeping tax cut in 2019 that wiped out a third of the country’s tax revenues.

Then the pandemic hit, crushing the tourism and garment industries – Sri Lanka’s two main foreign-exchange earners. More recently, the war in Ukraine, by triggering soaring international energy and food prices, helped to drain Sri Lanka’s foreign reserves, creating fuel, food, medicine, and electricity shortages. It was the final straw for many Sri Lankans, who took to the streets in droves.

On May 9, Mahinda reluctantly resigned from his post as prime minister, in an effort to appease protesters. But protests continued to rage, culminating in the storming of the seaside presidential palace by demonstrators. Gotabaya fled minutes earlier before conveying his decision to resign.

Within Sri Lanka, photos of protesters lounging on the president’s bed and cooking in his backyard have become a symbol of people’s power. But they should also serve as a warning to political dynasties elsewhere in the world, from Asia to Latin America. When a family dominates a government or party, accountability tends to suffer, often leading to catastrophe. This can cause even the most entrenched dynasty to fall – and swiftly.

There is also a lesson for other heavily indebted countries. Unless they take action to make their debts sustainable, they could quickly be overwhelmed by crisis.

As for Sri Lanka, its next leaders will have to address shortages of basic necessities, rebuild a wrecked economy, reestablish the rule of law, and hold responsible those who caused the current disaster. But in a country where politics is a blood sport, one should not underestimate the challenge of overcoming the Rajapaksas’ corrosive legacy.




BRAHMA CHELLANEY
Writing for PS since 2009
153 Commentaries
Brahma Chellaney, Professor of Strategic Studies at the New Delhi-based Center for Policy Research and Fellow at the Robert Bosch Academy in Berlin, is the author of Water, Peace, and War: Confronting the Global Water Crisis (Rowman & Littlefield, 2013).

BREAKING – US denies visa to Gotabaya Rajapaksa

Sri Lanka's president flees the country

July 12, 2022
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

People throng President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's official residence on Tuesday, three days after it was stormed by anti government protesters in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Rafiq Maqbool/AP

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — The president of Sri Lanka fled the country early Wednesday, days after protesters stormed his home and office and the official residence of his prime minister amid a three-month economic crisis that triggered severe shortages of food and fuel.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, his wife and two bodyguards left aboard a Sri Lankan Air Force plane bound for the city of Male, the capital of the Maldives, according to an immigration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation.

Rajapaksa had agreed to step down under pressure. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said he would leave once a new government was in place.

Lawmakers agreed to elect a new president next week but struggled Tuesday to decide on the makeup of a new government to lift the bankrupt country out of economic and political collapse.

The promised resignations brought no end to the crisis, and protesters have vowed to occupy the official buildings until the top leaders are gone. For days, people have flocked to the presidential palace almost as if it were a tourist attraction — swimming in the pool, marveling at the paintings and lounging on the beds piled high with pillows. At one point, they also burned the prime minister's private home.

While lawmakers agreed late Monday to elect a new president from their ranks on July 20, they have not yet decided who will take over as prime minister and fill the Cabinet.

The new president will serve the remainder of Rajapaksa's term, which ends in 2024 — and could potentially appoint a new prime minister, who would then have to be approved by Parliament.

The prime minster is to serve as president until a replacement is chosen — an arrangement that is sure to further anger protesters who want Wickremesinghe out immediately.

Corruption and mismanagement have left the island nation laden with debt and unable to pay for imports of basic necessities. The shortages have sown despair among the country's 22 million people. Sri Lankans are skipping meals and lining up for hours to try to buy scarce fuel.

Until the latest crisis deepened, the Sri Lankan economy had been expanding and growing a comfortable middle class.

What lies ahead for Sri Lanka as the country faces political turmoil

The political impasse added fuel to the economic crisis since the absence of an alternative unity government threatened to delay a hoped-for bailout from the International Monetary Fund. The government must submit a plan on debt sustainability to the IMF in August before reaching an agreement.

In the meantime, the country is relying on aid from neighboring India and from China.

Asked whether China was in talks with Sri Lanka about possible loans, a Chinese Foreign Ministry official gave no indication whether such discussions were happening.

"China will continue to offer assistance as our capability allows for Sri Lanka's social development and economic recovery," said the spokesman, Wang Wenbin.

On Tuesday, Sri Lanka's religious leaders urged protesters to leave the government buildings. The protesters have vowed to wait until both Rajapaksa and Wickremesinghe are out of office.

After the storming of the government buildings, "it was clear there is a consensus in the country that the government leadership should change," said Jehan Perera, executive director of the National Peace Council of Sri Lanka, a think tank.

Months of demonstrations have all but dismantled the Rajapaksa political dynasty, which has ruled Sri Lanka for most of the past two decades.

The protesters accuse the president and his relatives of siphoning money from government coffers for years and Rajapaksa's administration of hastening the country's collapse by mismanaging the economy. The family has denied the corruption allegations, but Rajapaksa acknowledged some of his policies contributed to the meltdown.

The president had not been seen nor heard from since Saturday, though his office issued statements indicating that he continued to carry out his duties.

BREAKING – India refuses to let Sri Lankan president land in air force jet

 12 July 2022

The Indian government has refused to let Sri Lanka’s Gotabaya Rajapaksa land at a civilian airport in the country using an air force jet reports SBS Sinhala, as the embattled president reportedly searches for a way to flee the island.

According the SBS, “the Indian government refused to allow a Sri Lankan air force AN32, carrying the president, to land at an Indian civilian airport”.

Read more from SBS here.

A Sri Lankan Air Force  Antonov 32, the aircraft Rajapaksa was reportedly attempting to flee in (Courtesy: Sean d'Silva).

The news follows reports that the US embassy in Colombo denied Rajapaksa a visitor’s visa to enter the country.

“It was made very clear to him that there will be no visa for him,” a representative from the US embassy in Colombo reportedly told SBS Sinhala.

Read more: US denies visa to Gotabaya Rajapaksa

The Sri Lankan president and his brother, former finance minister Basil Rajapaksa, both attempted to flee the island via air last night, but were hindered by angry locals and airport staff who refused to serve them.

The whereabouts of both men remain unknown.

BREAKING – US denies visa to Gotabaya Rajapaksa

 12 July 2022

The US embassy has reportedly denied embattled Sri Lankan president Gotabaya Rajapaksa a visitor's visa to enter the country, after reports that he attempted to flee the island last night.

“It was made very clear to him that there will be no visa for him,” a representative from the US embassy in Colombo reportedly told SBS Sinhala.

Rajapaksa had reportedly requested a visitor visa to travel to California over the weekend. The request was refused.

“He could go there as a head of state without a visa, but the current circumstances are different,” the embassy representative said.

“He sought a safe passage to the U.S. after the recent events, but it was denied,” a Colombo-based US Embassy official also told The Hindu on Tuesday. 

However, SBS reports, the US embassy in Colombo did issue a new US passport to his brother Basil Rajapaksa, who reportedly left his in the presidential residence, which was stormed by protestors on Saturday.

Basil Rajapaksa, the former finance minister of Sri Lanka, also reportedly attempted to flee the island last night. The sibling, once nicknamed “Mr Ten Percent” over his reputation to demand a 10% bribe for any project, was reportedly attempting to board a flight to Dubai, and then travel to the United States where he still holds dual citizenship.

Both men were hindered by angry locals and airport staff who refused to serve them.

Seething Sri Lanka Stops President's Brother Flying Out Of The Country

By Uditha Jayasinghe and Devjyot Ghoshal
07/12/22 

Basil Rajapaksa, one of the brothers of Sri Lanka's president Gotabaya Rajapaksa, gestures as he leaves after he announced that he had resigned from parliament, amid the country's economic crisis, in Colombo, Sri Lanka, June 9, 2022. 

 Photo: Reuters / DINUKA LIYANAWATTE

Sri Lankan immigration officials stopped the president's brother and former finance minister Basil Rajapaksa from flying out of the country on Tuesday, as anger mounted over the island's worst economic crisis in decades.

It was not clear where Rajapaksa, who also holds U.S. citizenship, was trying to go. He resigned as finance minister in early April as street protests surged against shortages of fuel, food and other necessities, and quit his seat in parliament in June.

His elder brother, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, will resign as president on Wednesday to make way for a unity government, after thousands of protesters stormed his and the prime minister's official residences on Saturday demanding their ouster.

The president has not been seen in public since Friday and his whereabouts are unclear. Parliament will elect his replacement on July 20.

The main opposition party has nominated its leader, Sajith Premadasa, the son of an assassinated president, for the post. The ruling party is to decide on a nominee later in the day.

The Sri Lanka Immigration and Emigration Officers Association said its members declined to serve Basil Rajapaksa at the VIP departure lounge at Colombo airport.

"Given the unrest in Sri Lanka, immigration officials are under tremendous pressure to not allow top-level people to leave the country," K.A.S. Kanugala, chairman of the association, told Reuters.

"We are concerned for our security. So until this issue is resolved, the immigration officials working at the VIP lounge decided to withdraw their services."

Pictures of Basil Rajapaksa at the lounge were carried by local media and widely shared on social media, with some people expressing anger at his attempts to flee. Basil Rajapaksa could not be immediately reached for comment and a close aide declined to give details.

A top official in the ruling party said on condition of anonymity that Basil Rajapaksa was still in the country.

The Rajapaksa family, including former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, has dominated the politics of the country of 22 million for years and most Sri Lankans blame them for their current misery. Police have said that if a court ordered, they could investigate how about $50,000 in cash was found by protesters at the president's house.

'FREEDOM'

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said during a visit to Tokyo that Sri Lanka was in a "very difficult situation" and that one of its main debt holders, China, had an important role to play.

China is Sri Lanka's fourth-biggest lender, behind international financial markets, the Asian Development Bank and Japan.

In recent months, neighbour India has extended billions of dollars in loans to Sri Lanka to help pay for vital supplies. China has intervened less publicly but said it supports efforts for the island nation to restructure its debt.

The tourism-dependent economy was hammered badly by the COVID-19 pandemic and a fall in remittances from overseas Sri Lankans, while a ban on chemical fertilisers damaged farm output. The ban was later reversed.

The Rajapaksas implemented populist tax cuts in 2019 that affected government finances while shrinking foreign reserves curtailed imports of fuel, food and medicines.

Petrol has been severely rationed and long lines have formed in front of shops selling cooking gas. Headline inflation hit 54.6% last month, and the central bank has warned that it could rise to 70% in coming months.

Sri Lanka's sovereign dollar bonds extended recent declines on Tuesday to touch record lows. The 2025 bond suffered the biggest losses, down as much as 1.125 cents with bonds trading between 25-27 cents on the dollar, Tradeweb data showed.

Protesters have vowed to stay put in the official residences of the president and the prime minister until they quit. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe did not move into his official residence, Temple Trees, after taking office in May, and was away when protesters set fire to his private home in Colombo on Saturday.

On Tuesday, seven people were hospitalised after a fight between two groups of protesters at Temple Trees, police spokesman Nalin Thalduwa told Reuters. It was not immediately clear what led to the fight.

A witness, who declined to be named, described it as a small incident.

The mood was festive at the airy colonial-era building, once one of the country's most protected with armed guards and watch-towers.

Several hundred people walked through its stately rooms while a young man in a baseball cap played a grand piano by a large porch, onlookers clapping along. Families with young children picnicked on the lawns, and a vendor walked through, selling lottery tickets.

At one guard box, two paramilitary soldiers with assault rifles stood by as sightseers streamed out of a waiting room after taking photographs of themselves sitting on the carved high-backed chairs.

"Freedom!" said Mallawaara Arachchi, a 73-year-old retired engineer touring the building. "What we expected we have gained. We will be the best country in the world in the near future."

(Writing by Krishna N. Das; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Nick Macfie)

Sri Lanka president stuck in airport stand-off while trying to flee

Sri Lanka president Gotabaya Rajapaksa has promised to resign on July 13, 2022. 

PHOTO: EPA-EFE


COLOMBO (AFP) - Sri Lanka's embattled president was stuck in his own country on Tuesday (July 12) in a humiliating stand-off with airport immigration staff blocking his exit to safety abroad, official sources said on Tuesday.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa has promised to resign on Wednesday and clear the way for a "peaceful transition of power" following widespread protests against him over the country's unprecedented economic crisis.

The 73-year-old leader fled his official residence in Colombo just before tens of thousands of protesters overran it on Saturday and wanted to travel to Dubai, officials said.

As president, Rajapaksa enjoys immunity from arrest, and he is believed to want to go abroad before stepping down to avoid the possibility of being detained.

But immigration officers were refusing to go to the VIP suite to stamp his passport, while he insisted he would not go through the public facilities fearing reprisals from other airport users.

The president and his wife spent the night at a military base next to the main international airport after missing four flights that could have taken them to the United Arab Emirates.

Rajapaksa's youngest brother Basil, who resigned in April as finance minister, missed his own Emirates flight to Dubai early on Tuesday after a similar stand-off with airport staff.

Basil tried to use the paid concierge service for business travellers, but airport and immigration staff said they were withdrawing from the fast track service with immediate effect.

"There were some other passengers who protested against Basil boarding their flight," an airport official said. "It was a tense situation, so he hurriedly left the airport."

Basil, a US dual citizen, had to obtain a new passport after leaving his behind at the presidential palace when the Rajapaksas beat a hasty retreat to avoid mobs on Saturday, a diplomatic source said.
Hasty retreat

Official sources said a suitcase full of documents had also been left behind at the stately mansion along with 17.85 million rupees (S$69,300) in cash, now in the custody of a Colombo court.

There was no official word from the president's office about his whereabouts, but he remained commander-in-chief of the armed forces with military resources at his disposal.

Protesters and ordinary people inside the Presidential Palace in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on July 10, 2022.

 PHOTO: BLOOMBERG


One option still open to him would be to take a navy vessel to either India or the Maldives, a defence source said.

If Rajapaksa steps down as promised, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe will automatically become acting president until parliament elects an MP to serve out the presidential term, which ends in November 2024.

Rajapaksa is accused of mismanaging the economy to a point where the country has run out of foreign exchange to finance even the most essential imports, leading to severe hardships for the 22 million population.

Sri Lanka defaulted on its US$51-billion foreign debt in April and is in talks with the IMF for a possible bailout.

The island has nearly exhausted its already scarce supplies of petrol. The government has ordered the closure of non-essential offices and schools to reduce commuting and save fuel.

The Rajapaksa Regime Is Gone. What Next for Sri Lanka?


“Gota” is finally gone, but ending Sri Lanka’s chronic instability will be an even harder task than ousting the Rajapaksas.

By P.K. Balachandran

THE DIPLOMAT
July 12, 2022

Protesters walk past a vandalized security gate at the entrance to president’s official residence in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Saturday, July 9, 2022.

Credit: AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena

Mobs have ended the Gotabaya Rajapaksa-Ranil Wickremesinghe government in Sri Lanka. On Saturday, huge crowds of angry youth stormed the official residences of the president and the prime minister and set fire to the private residence of Wickremesinghe, forcing the hands of the two leaders.

Both President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe have declared their intention to resign. While the president said that he would quit on July 13, the prime minister said that he would quit as soon as the proposed all-party government is formed.

Sri Lankans are amazed that the discredited duo is still sticking in office despite their manifest alienation from the masses.

Meanwhile, a meeting of all parliamentary parties called by the speaker, Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena, had demanded the resignation of the president and the prime minister and proposed that the speaker take charge as interim president for a maximum of 30 days. Within that time, parliament should elect a president to complete Rajapaksa’s term.

The party leaders rejected Wickremesinghe’s plea that he be allowed to complete critical talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a bailout package and secure fuel supplies from various countries. His ministers declined to speak up for him; some declared their intention to resign.

The mob violence was unprecedented because it was the first time that mass anger was directed against the top rulers of the country and not a minority community, such as Tamils or Muslims.

The police and fire services watched as thousands broke iron barricades and occupied the president’s colonial-era mansion and the prime minister’s official residence. Later in the night, the mob set fire to the prime minister’s private residence, destroying hundreds of books, antiques, and paintings collected by Wickremesinghe and his wife, both aesthetes.

It looked as if the Sri Lankan state machinery had crumbled under the weight of the agitators’ numbers as well as the public support they enjoyed. The island nation’s citizens, suffering for months for want of basic necessities like food, fuel, and medicines, had tacitly sanctioned destruction and arson directed against political leaders, who were collectively derided as “rogues” who deserved no better.ADVERTISEMENT

However, neither Rajapaksa nor Wickremesinghe was in residence at the time of the attacks, having been evacuated to unknown safe houses by the military.

The Build-up

By Saturday, it was obvious to Rajapaksa that the political situation had turned against him irreversibly. The opposition was to organize a huge rally on Saturday in front of his official residence. The first sign of the collapse of the system appeared when the courts refused a police request to ban rallies near the president’s house. The curfew that the police had instituted on Friday was lifted at 8 a.m. on Saturday on the demand of the Bar Council of Sri Lanka. Trains and buses, which were not supposed to run on Saturday, did run, bringing thousands of agitators to Colombo.

The police, who resisted the marchers initially, eventually gave in and allowed the crowd to storm the president’s and the prime minister’s official residences and then attack Wickremesinghe’s personal residence. The army also decided not to act, apparently because officials from Western nations, especially U.S. Ambassador Julie Chung, had warned against the use of force against “peaceful” demonstrators.

Above all, several members of the ruling coalition led by the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) demanded the resignation of the president. It looked as if Rajapaksa had no legs to stand on. His support structure, comprising the ruling party and its coalition partners, the law and order machinery, and the courts, had collapsed. Public forces like the “Gota Go Home” agitators, lawyers, Catholic, Protestant and Buddhist clergy members, prominent Muslim leaders, and trade unions were now calling the shots.

The Rise and Fall of Gotabaya

Gotabaya Rajapaksa is the younger brother of former President and SLPP supremo Mahinda Rajapaksa. When Mahinda came to power in 2005 on an anti-separatist and Sinhalese-nationalist platform and decided to go to war with the separatist Tamil Tigers in 2006, Gotabaya, a retired lieutenant colonel of the Sri Lankan army, came back from the United States to take charge as defense secretary. After winning the war he shone as secretary of the urban development ministry.

Mahinda was voted out of office in 2015, but the family did not remain sidelined for long.

In August 2019, a series of suicide attacks by Islamic terrorists created a new wave of Sinhalese-Buddhist majoritarian nationalism, which demanded a strong leader. The SLPP and its nationalist allies put up Gotabaya Rajapaksa as their presidential candidate in 2019 on the strength of his war-winning ways. He swept the elections.

But the moment he took office, Gotabaya started replacing civilian officials with retired military officers in key posts, causing dismay in the civil service. He cared little for ministers and members of parliament, as he believed that professional politicians were lazy, inefficient, and corrupt. Thus, he alienated the entire political class, including his own party men. Even experienced men in the politically savvy Rajapaksa clan could not disabuse him of his notions.

Gotabaya’s initial actions were populist but at the cost of the treasury. He announced tax cuts, which reduced revenue. He recruited 100,000 unemployable university graduates to petty government jobs, which drained the state’s resources. He also went against the Muslim minority, seeing them as terrorists or jihadists.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit Sri Lanka, he ordered frequent lockdowns. The economy ground to a halt. Export income and customs duties plummeted. Tourist arrivals fell to a trickle because of expensive quarantine regulations. Remittances from citizens working abroad also thinned. On top of all that, Rajapaksa suddenly slapped a total ban on chemical fertilizers and pesticides, which ruined the agriculture sector, affecting 70 percent of the population.

While the import-dependent country was facing a dollar crunch, the time came for paying foreign loan installments. In 2022, Sri Lanka had to pay $7 billion in debts when it had only a little over $1 billion in foreign exchange reserves. In April, Sri Lanka defaulted on loan repayments and sought restructuring of the repayment regimen. Afraid of the IMF’s conditions, the government delayed an appeal to the IMF for a bailout. When Colombo did approach the IMF, the country was down to the dregs, surviving on handouts from India, which between January and June totaled $3.5 billion.

Depending entirely on Indian lines of credit, the government was unable to meet even the basic expectations of the people: fuel for their vehicles, food on the table, and medicines in state hospitals. Food inflation had hit 56 percent.

Restive Sri Lankans, mostly the youth, had by then started the “Gota Go Home” movement, brazenly blocking the main entrance of the president’s office. The round-the-clock agitation continued for weeks, with the agitators demanding the ouster of the entire Rajapaksa clan. A violent attack perpetrated by Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa’s followers on peaceful “Go Home Gota” agitators on May 9 led to Mahinda’s resignation. But even after this, agitators burnt the houses of the Rajapaksas and 60 other ruling party honchos in the districts.

Enter (and Exit) Wickremesinghe

Following the resignation of Mahinda, there was a vociferous demand that an all-party government be formed. The president asked the leader of the opposition, Sajith Premadasa, to form a government, but Premadasa said that the president should resign first, a condition Gotabaya rejected. He then asked Ranil Wickremesinghe to assume office as prime minister. Wickremesinghe took up the job on the condition that he be given a free hand, to which Gotabaya agreed.

Meanwhile, the peoples’ woes continued as India had reached the end of its tether as far as giving credit went. It was clear that debt restructuring would take time and the IMF’s bailout package, which was tied to debt restructuring, was not expected anytime soon. Most Sri Lankans and the politicians in parliament were of the view that a change of government, with the exit of Gotabaya Rajapaksa as well as Wickremesinghe, would help.

The common demand was for an all-party government and not a patchwork under Wickremesinghe, whose political legitimacy was questioned because he was not an elected MP but a nominated one. He represents the United National Party (UNP), which did not have a single elected MP. That Wickremesinghe had the support of the president and the SLPP, the single largest party in parliament, did not matter. He was seen as a “lackey” of the hated Rajapaksas.

People blindly felt that nothing good could be achieved unless Rajapaksa and Wickremesinghe quit. When the duo did not go but kept saying that they could turn the country around, the agitators decided to abandon non-violence and force the issue.

Sri Lanka’s future is now extremely uncertain. The formation of an all-party government will be difficult because the parties in parliament are an extremely disparate lot, each in stiff competition with the other. There is no standout leader to rally the various groups under one umbrella. Given the instability, the IMF package will be delayed, foreign aid may cease, and foreign investment will not come.

In other words, the ouster of Rajapaksa and Wickremesinghe is not the end of Sri Lanka’s woes. It may in fact usher in an even more acute crisis in the coming weeks.

GUEST AUTHOR
P.K. Balachandran is an experienced Indian journalist writing on South Asian affairs from his base in Colombo, Sri Lanka. He has written for a number of prestigious publications including The Guardian, The Observer, and the Economist.

What's next for Sri Lanka?

Protesters inside the Presidential Palace in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on July 10, 2022. 

PHOTO: BLOOMBERG

COLOMBO Sri Lanka's Parliament will elect a new president on July 20, its speaker said on Monday (July 11), after protesters stormed the residences of the current president and prime minister. Here are some key dates
July 9

Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe announce their resignations.

July 13

Mr Rajapaksa will officially step down. Analysts and observers told CNN Parliament Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena will likely assume temporary charge.

July 15

Parliament to reconvene.

July 19

Nominations for the top post will be presented before Parliament starting July 19.

July 20

New president to be elected and will complete the rest of Mr Rajapaksa's term, due to end in 2024.

Sri Lankan workers in Europe speak out on mass uprising against Rajapakse

V. Gnana

WSWS.ORG

This weekend, as a mobilization of the Sri Lankan working class took over Colombo, stormed the president’s office and forced President Gotabhaya Rajapakse to flee, Sri Lankan workers in Europe took to the streets to demonstrate their solidarity. Rallies were held in London, Paris, and other cities across Europe.

WSWS reporters intervened at the rally in Paris to interview the demonstrators and discuss the perspectives of the Socialist Equality Party (Sri Lanka). They distributed the SEP statement on the July 9 mobilization that toppled Rajapakse.

WSWS reporters spoke to Renuka and Edouard, who worked as a plumber in France after immigrating from Sri Lanka. They had traveled back to Sri Lanka and were present earlier this year as protests broke out against Rajapakse over surging food and fuel prices and growing shortages of basic goods. They said they had attended several #GotaGoHome protests on Galle Face Green in Colombo and knew that after their departure, protesters had defied a state ban in order to continue to protest.

Edouard and Renuka

Renuka told the WSWS that she was very happy that the protests had finally forced out Rajapakse and his cronies: “I stayed there for three months, it was catastrophic. People cannot buy food, they eat once a day. It is horrible. … There is no gas. Even flour to make bread or wraps is too expensive, people do not have enough money to buy a kilogram of flour. So we are very happy they are gone.”

Edouard denounced the government for looting the Sri Lankan people: “We do not have anything anymore in Sri Lanka, they have stolen everything. The entire government must leave and we want a new one. Prices have skyrocketed, doubled, tripled, but wages have not gone up. People can no longer live with what they earn.”

He explained, “We do not need to import rice in Sri Lanka, we have supplies for more than a year. But rice prices are rising, we do not know why. It’s the same with sugar. We do not have gas because they are hatching schemes to keep getting even more money. … The government is a family. They are everywhere, they have stolen all the hard currency we had. Now they will have to give back what they stole.”

When WSWS reporters asked about the SEP’s perspective of abolishing the executive presidency and transferring power to the workers as part of a struggle for socialism, Edouard agreed. He said: “People must involve themselves all the time in politics, year round. It’s not the parliament that should decide, as normal. Now the people must decide, that is what we must do in Sri Lanka. The people must take power in Sri Lanka.”

Sri Lankan protester in Paris holds sign saying "Immediately free all peaceful political prisoners."

Demonstrators at the rally presented the WSWS reporters to Chandana, a member of the Maoist Front-Line Socialist Party (FSP). He said, “We must set up an interim government with all the other parties. The people from #GotaGoHome should come sit down with all the political parties. There are laws. This is not a revolution, or if it is, it’s a revolution for change.”

When WSWS reporters asked why he insisted the mass uprising is not a revolution, Chandana repeated his call to build an interim government including the Sri Lankan Freedom Party (SLFP), Rajapakse’s former party. He said, “We need an immediate solution. We need an interim government and then we can look for it. … Like it or not, we need all the parties, the Tamil nationalists, the Muslim Congress, the SLFP, all the parties, whether you like them or not. Because there is nothing else that can be done right now, we must do that.”

When WSWS reporters said that the SEP had refused to attend the all-party coalition talks the FSP is proposing because power must go to the working class, not an interim government made of corrupt bourgeois parties, Chandana left, saying: “I do not have time to talk to you, because I know your party.”

Triyan at a friend speak to WSWS reporters during the Sri Lankan protest in Paris.

Finally, WSWS reporters also spoke to Triyan, a young Sri Lankan worker in Paris. He called for the overthrow of the establishment parties in Colombo, saying: “We, the people, should all gather together and overthrow them. … All these parties continuously take turns colluding among themselves to control the situation.”

Triyan said it was necessary to overcome religious and ethnic divisions incited by the Sri Lankan ruling elite, notably during the 1983-2009 civil war, to unite and overthrow the regime.

About the existing Sri Lankan regime, he said: “All of us, Tamil, Sinhalese and Muslim people must come together and overthrow it. We are divided because the politicians have divided us for their political purposes and the people do not have such a problem. We think it is politicians who have created the problem. My opinion is that it should not happen again, everyone should have equal rights and everyone should have equal justice. This is the opinion of most youths today.”

Asked the causes of the revolutionary struggle emerging in Sri Lanka, Triyan said it was rooted in an international crisis and the Sri Lankan civil war: “Food and fuel shortages, inflation, the coronavirus pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine war, the problems are the same as in all countries. But Sri Lanka is not a superpower, it is a small country. It has already spent a lot of money on the civil war. It's people's tax money. Corrupt governance must be abolished.”

After WSWS reporters noted that millions of workers internationally are following and discussing what the revolutionary uprising in Sri Lanka means for them, Triyan pointed to the explosive discontent mounting with capitalist governments around the world: “This is the situation all over the world today. They are not spending money to control the coronavirus. Millions are poured into the war … The people who work and live in Sri Lanka are the ones worst affected by these problems, and so they are the ones who have burst into the President’s office.”

Israel could be 'blacklisted' over killings of Palestinian children, says UN chief

New United Nations report finds Israeli forces killed 78 Palestinian children and maimed another 982 last year

A child stands in the wreckage of her neighbourhood in the Gaza Strip following Israel's military bombing campaign in May 2021 (MEE/Mohammed al-Hajjar)

By MEE staff
Published date: 12 July 2022 

Israel should be added to a UN blacklist if its violence against Palestinian children is repeated this year, UN chief Antonio Guterres said on Monday.

In its annual Children and Armed Conflict report, the UN said Israeli forces killed 78 Palestinian children, maimed another 982 and detained 637 in 2021.

“I am shocked by the number of children killed and maimed by Israeli forces during hostilities, in air strikes on densely populated areas and through the use of live ammunition during law enforcement operations,” the UN secretary-general said in the report.

"Should the situation repeat itself in 2022, without meaningful improvement, Israel should be listed," he added.

Children of Gaza left traumatised a year after Israeli bombardment

Read More »

So far this year, at least 15 Palestinian children have been killed by Israeli forces, according to the Geneva-based Defence for Children International’s Palestine chapter (DCI-P).

The annual report, which records grave violations against children in conflict areas around the world, has caused controversy at times over which parties are included in its “blacklist” at the end of each report.

The list is intended to exert pressure on states and armed groups around the world for violations against children verified by the UN.

Israel has never been on the list.

According to this year’s report, the UN recorded 2,934 grave violations against 1,208 Palestinian children and nine Israeli children in the occupied Palestinian Territories and Israel.

All 17 children killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, were fatally shot using live ammunition mainly during demonstrations, the report noted.

In the besieged Gaza Strip, 69 Palestinian children were killed, the majority during Israel's 11-day bombardment campaign.

Among the 637 Palestinian children detained in this period, 85 reported ill-treatment and breaches of due process by Israeli forces, with 75 percent reporting having experienced physical violence.

The report also said Palestinian rockets fired by armed groups killed two Israeli children.

Israel and the Palestinian territories witnessed the highest number of verified violations against children in 2021 according to the report, along with Yemen, Syria, Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Somalia.
Syria and Yemen

In Syria, the UN said 424 children had been killed and 474 maimed last year. Of those, 301 deaths were attributed to Syrian government forces and pro-government forces.

Around 1,296 children were recruited into the conflict, mainly by armed opposition groups.

In Yemen, which has been wrecked by war between the Saudi-led coalition and Houthi rebels, the report said that 2,748 grave violations had been committed against 800 children by the warring sides.

A total of 201 children were killed and a further 480 were maimed.

'I am alarmed by the high number of children killed and maimed, especially by explosive remnants of war'

- Antonio Guterres, UN secretary-general

The Houthis were responsible for killing or maiming 180 Yemeni children, while the Saudi-led coalition, which is in the country to restore the UN-recognised government, was responsible for killing or maiming 100 children.

The report also recorded high levels of recruitment and use of children in the conflict, especially by the Houthi rebels, who recruited 174 children (172 boys, two girls), between the ages of nine and 17 last year alone.

“I am alarmed by the high number of children killed and maimed, especially by explosive remnants of war,” Guterres said, urging all parties involved in the conflict to abide by international humanitarian law.

The Saudi-led coalition in Yemen had been on the UN’s blacklist for three years before being removed in 2020.

It was first briefly added to the blacklist in 2016 and then removed by former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon pending review.

At the time, Ban accused Saudi Arabia of exerting “unacceptable” undue pressure after sources told Reuters that Riyadh had threatened to cut some UN funding. Saudi Arabia denied threatening Ban.

This year’s report found that 2,515 children had been killed and 5,555 maimed in global conflicts during 2021.

THEOCRATIC STATE
'The topic is still taboo': Italy's lack of sexual education in school 

By Samuele Damilano • Updated: 12/07/2022 - 



Italy is one of the last European Union member states where sex education is not mandatory in schools and several students say this has translated into a lack of sexual and emotional awareness.

"I have never received any sex education classes. In Italy the topic is still taboo," said 17-year-old Beatrice who is a student in the Lazio region that surrounds Rome.

"Teachers do not talk with us about this topic, they try to avoid it even where there is a clear connection to the lesson," Alice, aged 16, echoes her.

While several bills have been proposed over the years to introduce sex education, none of them has been successful.

Instead, sex education is left to the country's regions, which can decide whether to allocate funds to set up courses on sexuality in schools, often taught by medical personnel, nurses, midwives, or biologists.

Negative consequences

While there is no scientific research in Italy on the consequences of a lack of sex education, there is data that can give clues about the state of young people's awareness about sex.

For instance, Italy ranks 26th out of 45 in Europe in access to contraception, with rates far behind 

"Despite an increased use of modern methods (especially the pill and condoms), it cannot yet be said that the contraceptive revolution, understood as a transition toward a diffusion of modern and effective methods, has been definitively accomplished in Italy," wrote Italy's Institute of Statistics two years ago.

It found that rather the withdrawal method was used 20 per cent of the time as a contraceptive method, despite being less effective.

Around 80 per cent of 16,000 Italian adolescents questioned turned to the internet for information about reproduction, according to a national fertility study, conducted by the Istituto Superiore di Sanità.

"In view of (my) first experiences I believe and feel that I need a sex education class, but so far I have never received it," says another Italian adolescent in the Lazio region, Claudia, who is 15.

"It is thought that educating girls and boys at our age is too early, while it is precisely now that we need it most. Many of my friends had negative experiences during their first time."

Marina Marceca, a gynaecologist at San Filippo Neri Hospital in Rome, says she tried to introduce sex education classes at her daughter's high school but "there was no way."

"Talking about certain issues, according to the faculty and some parents might have offended the sensibilities of kids who profess religious beliefs," she said.

She works often as a volunteer to teach sex education classes regarding body changes, personal hygiene, contraception, and information about unwanted pregnancies.

"I've never had the perception of a rejectionist attitude; the kids have always shown themselves to be curious and predisposed to learn, the more so as the age is young."

For Marceca, the most negative repercussions of a gap in sex education concern the social and relational aspects of sexuality, with a lack of awareness of differences in sexual orientation, gender identity, and respect for others at the root of discrimination and violence in relationships.
Italian paradox

Three activists recently launched a petition which has garnered nearly 35,000 signatures, for mandatory sex, affective and gender equality education courses in Rome's high schools.

"Inequality between men and women, femicides, and homophobia are all problems related to poor culture and awareness, which can only be done in schools," says Flavia Restivo, one of the women who started the petition.

"I think the main reason that hinders the establishment of these courses in schools is the cumbersome presence of the Catholic Church within our society. Sexuality is seen as a dirty thing, something to be ashamed of, just think of the fact that we have religion class and classes with crucifixes."

Actor Pietro Turano who is also a spokesperson for Gay Centre and host of the podcast “Eclissi” agrees: "The Catholic sense of modesty plays a notable role in the aura of shame and reticence that surrounds the sexual-affective sphere."

"One of the most evident paradoxes in Italian society consists in the contrast between the continuous diffusion of sexual and sexualising stimuli, and the difficulty of talking freely and uninhibitedly about a need that unites us all."

He says that sex education needs to be discussed in a broader context to address discrimination, homophobia, and gender-based violence.

"It would be useless to do sex education by talking only about contraception and pregnancy: these are fundamental elements, technical tools that, however, must be used within a broader context, in which discrimination, homophobia and gender-based violence are still perpetrated."

Maximiliano Ulivieri, who runs an organisation that trains workers to help people with disabilities experience sexuality, says that the main problem is ignorance.

"We need communication that is not limited to contraception and the physical part of sex, but that explains how to accept bodies, to understand that they have a desire regardless of their form. Here, in this sense, sex education is fundamental."