he global community needs 100 per cent cancellation of multilateral debt without harmful conditions,” said Marie Clarke, national
coordinator of the Jubilee USA Network for debt cancellation. “By failing to seize the opportunity, the G8 has once again chosen baby steps over bold action.”
Her comments came in response to the decisions adopted by the eight most industrialized (and richest) countries (the so-called G8) at the end of their annual summit on Sea Island off the coast of Georgia (United States). These did not include the hoped-for total cancellation of the debt that crushes 41 countries, 34 of which in Africa.
The global community needs 100 per cent cancellation of multilateral debt without harmful conditions. By failing to seize the opportunity, the G8 has once again chosen baby steps over bold action.
Despite the lunch invitation extended by the G8 countries to the heads of state of Algeria, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Uganda, the main economic measure adopted concerns only the two-year extension of the HIPC (Heavily Indebted Poor Countries) Initiative, which was due to expire in December, allowing some States to reduce their debt quotas.
The announcement came as a disappointment to those who – after so many words and after the announcement of the so-called ‘merciful agenda’ proclaimed by some – expected decisive action to assist those countries oppressed by debt or devastated by social plagues such as HIV/AIDS. The only novelty is that the governments of the poorest nations now have until the end of 2006 to ask for help though loans, which must subsequently be repaid.
Instead, the decision by the same G8 to cancel part of Iraq’s foreign debt met with displeasure. According to some sources, it seems that the summit involved a kind of battle of wills: some reports suggest that the US and Great Britain pushed for the almost total cancellation of the 120 billion dollars of Iraqi debt, while France – despite the apparent ‘truce’ sanctioned at the recent D-day commemoration – allegedly dug in its heels, demanding that the oil-rich country does not benefit from greater advantages than developing countries. The deadlock apparently led to the temporary freezing of both proposals.
However, it seems that the sum under discussion for Iraq is around 90 billion dollars: “Why not give a third of this figure to Africa?” asked Oxfam spokesman Irungu Houghton, given that the heavily indebted countries should repay around 31 billion dollars, especially to institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
The G8 leaders also decided to create a kind of ‘collective program’ for the development of a vaccine against the HIV virus. Of the 40 million global AIDS sufferers, 27 million are in Africa, where an estimated 6,000 people die from the syndrome each day.
Furthermore, they agreed on a mechanism for training around 15,000 soldiers a year until 2010 (75,000 in all) to be used in peacekeeping operations; most of these are due to come from Africa itself, where the wars can partly be linked to the economic and geopolitical interests of the countries that took part in the summit.
On the subject of conflicts, the seven leaders remaining at the summit yesterday (the Canadian premier Paul Martin returned home on Wednesday evening for domestic reasons) urged the warring parties in the conflict in South Sudan to reach “a final and global accord” as soon as possible following the signing of an important agreement a few weeks ago.
The leaders also voiced “great concern” for the situation in Darfur, the remote region in western Sudan and the scene of what the UN has described as the most serious humanitarian crisis of the moment.
The heads of state and of government of the G8 nations denounced the “continuous human rights abuses, often with ethnic dimensions” in the region, calling on the government of Khartoum to disarm the Arab militias known as ‘Janjaweed’, which are responsible for persecuting the civilian population and especially the black African population in the area.
The G8 summit of (the few) rich countries having closed, today the G77 summit of (the many) developing countries – 132 nations in total – opens in San Paolo (Brazil): this is a special ministerial summit to mark the 40th anniversary of this group, which not one member country has yet managed to leave to sit on the laden tables such as the one on Sea Island.
(From MISNA)