wfn.org | Foreign Debt Issue Should be Brought to International Court

["Frank Imhoff" <FRANKI@elca.org>]

Argentine Pastor: Foreign Debt Issue Should be Brought to
International Court of Justice
Latin American Churches Urged to Affirm at LWF Assembly that Debt
is Illegitimate, Unethical

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador/GENEVA, 9 April 2003 (LWI/*ALC) - A
Lutheran church leader from Argentina has described the foreign
debt of countries in the South especially the Latin American
region as illegitimate and anti-ethical and urged that this issue
be brought before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The
Hague.

The Rev. Angel. F. Furlan, president of Argentina's United
Evangelical Lutheran Church (IELU), reminded church
representatives attending the region's preparatory meeting for the
July 2003 Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Tenth Assembly, that
foreign debt, globalization and human rights were critical issues
at the 2002 Conference of Bishops and Presidents of the Lutheran
Churches in Latin America (COP) in Santa Cruz, Bolivia.

Furlan said that globalization, which could make significant
contribution to humanity, has fallen into the hands of major First
World political and military powers. In particular, He singled out
the United States for imposing a new form of economic liberalism
on poor countries using the foreign debt issue.

At the Santa Cruz conference, Furlan recalled, participants agreed
to strengthen ecumenical relations to promote studies about the
ethical-economic relationship, deepen theological reflection about
the so-called foreign debt and declare that it has been paid
several times over, and is illegitimate and anti-ethical.

Last year's conference and a September meeting of the Latin
American Southern Cone Churches held in Florianopolis, Brazil,
proposed that the LWF and World Council of Churches provide
support so that the UN General Assembly could lobby the ICJ to
rule on foreign debt obligations.

Statements from the Latin American meetings affirmed that foreign
debt and its service impede the economic development of Third
World nations and have a negative impact on the people's standard
of living. It was pointed out that in the vast majority of cases,
the debt was incurred without public knowledge or benefits.

The World Bank has recognized that 30 percent of the loans that
were advanced never reached the beneficiary nation, and were
instead used to buy weapons and for other repressive policies
spearheaded by dictatorships.

According to Furlan, Argentina's debt, like that of other
countries, has been paid several times over. Between 1976 and 2000
the debt increased from USD 8 billion to USD 160 billion, but the
amount repaid within the same period was more than USD 200
billion.

Part of the increase was due to a unilateral hike in interest
payments implemented by the United States and other creditor
nations in the 1980s and imposed by the International Monetary
Fund (IMF) and World Bank through adjustment programs and
restructuring.

The so-called Brady Plan, supposedly aimed at reducing the debt,
has led to an unrestricted opening up of the economy and the sale
of all public holdings. In Argentina, 90 percent of banks and 40
percent of the industries are owned by international investors,
Furlan said.

In the 1980s, Latin American countries earned USD 177.8 billion
from the privatization of public assets. But in 1999 alone,
according to the IMF, foreign debt service payments in Latin
America and the Caribbean stood at USD 176.9 billion.

It is against this background that Furlan urged the Latin American
Lutheran churches to present to the forthcoming LWF Tenth
Assembly, an articulated discourse about the issue of the foreign
debt, declaring it to be illegitimate and anti-ethical.

At the same time, he cautioned countries not to accept campaigns
that seek to condone the debt or the argument that countries are
insolvent. Rather, "we should insist that Latin American and Third
World countries in general, are creditors of rich nations for the
tremendous social debt that has been generated by the neoliberal
policy."

The PAC in San Salvador is the last in a series of regional
pre-assemblies prior to the Assembly at which more than 400
delegates are expected. Similar consultations have taken place in
North America, Europe, Asia and Africa, while an international
conference for women was held last November, and a global youth
conference will take place a week prior to the Assembly opening.

*ALC - Latin American and Caribbean News Agency

(The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the
Lutheran tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund (Sweden), the LWF now
has 136 member churches in 76 countries representing over 61.7
million of the 65.4 million Lutherans worldwide. The LWF acts on
behalf of its member churches in areas of common interest such as
ecumenical relations, theology, humanitarian assistance, human
rights, communication, and the various aspects of mission and
development work. Its secretariat is located in Geneva,
Switzerland.)

[Lutheran World Information (LWI) is LWF's information service.
Unless specifically noted, material presented does not represent
positions or opinions of the LWF or of its various units. Where
the dateline of an article contains the notation (LWI), the
material may be freely reproduced with acknowledgment.]

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