Christian Aid Partner Leads Rally for Liberty in Sri Lanka

Christian Aid partner MONLAR (Movement for National Land and Agricultural Reform) organised a rally yesterday where more than 2,000 people marched through the streets of the Sri Lankan capital Colombo to protest against enforced liberalisation policies by the World Bank.

The rally coincided with a meeting of Commonweath Finance Ministers in Colombo, prior to the annual meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Foundation (IMF) in Singapore.

The marchers from more than 70 community groups, including farmers, fishermen, plantation workers, industrial workers, academics and members of the clergy, wore headbands with the slogan "No More World Bank."

Chandra Wimalasiri, 50, a rice farmer from Wellawa in central Sri Lanka, had travelled for six hours by bus to take part in the protest.

"The World Bank and IMF have destroyed our traditional ways of farming and because of the privatisation policies farmers have to take loans to buy pesticides and fertilisers," she said.

"Some farmers get into debt and some have even committed suicide because of this."

Later MONLAR handed a letter to the World Bank officials detailing how its policies promoting the privatisation of state enterprises and public services like heath and education have actually created poverty in Sri Lanka.

"The World Bank has proved that it cannot change and it cannot eradicate poverty in Sri Lanka," the letter said.

"Further, its continuing presence and domination of the processes of planning is severely impeding the development and implementation of real policies for poverty eradication."

Sarath Fernando, head of MONLAR, met with representatives from the World Bank in Colombo following the rally.

"The World Bank has been forced to recognise the scale of opposition in Sri Lanka,'" he said. "Today they undertook to bring their bosses from Washington to a public meeting in Colombo to discuss people's proposals for poverty eradication."

He had this reaction to the announcement from the UK government that it will withhold funds from the World Bank: "The British government has begun to move but they will have to go much further. They must recognise the right and ability of the people to plan for poverty eradication. The World Bank has lost all legitimacy after 50 years of failure in Sri Lanka."

Yesterday's protest was part of a wider campaign in Sri Lanka by MONLAR and Christian Aid to help small-scale rice farmers who have been left in poverty by the export-oriented policies promoted by the World Bank.

Over a million families - around 30 per cent of Sri Lanka's population - are engaged in rice farming. But over the years it has become less profitable because the cost of production has risen and the state-run mechanism for regulating prices has been dismantled. Government subsidies for fertilisers have been withdrawn on the advice of the World Bank and the IMF.