wfn.org | WCC Tells G8 Meeting to Find Radical Solution to Debt "Scandal"

[PCUSA NEWS <pcusa.news@ecunet.org>]

14-June-1999 
99224 
 
    WCC Tells G8 Meeting 
    to Find Radical Solution to Debt "Scandal" 
 
    by Edmund Doogue 
    Ecumenical News International 
 
GENEVA-"Twenty per cent of humanity has 85 per cent of the wealth, while 
[at the other end of the economic scale] another twenty per cent owns only 
1.3 or 1.4 per cent," one of the world's leading campaigners for reform of 
the global economy, Dr. Susan George, declared June 9. 
 
    Speaking at a press conference in the Ecumenical Center in Geneva, held 
to launch a statement by the World Council of Churches (WCC) which is 
urging a meeting of world leaders in Cologne, Germany, on June 18-19 to 
undertake radical reforms of the global economy, George delivered a damning 
condemnation of the leaders of the world's richest countries.  She attacked 
in particular the international community's failure to resolve the problem 
of huge debts owed to the rich countries by the poorest nations. 
 
    "No human catastrophe is enough to move political will," said George, 
who is associate director of the Transnational Institute in Amsterdam, and 
president of the Observatoire de la Mondialization, in Paris.  "The words 
`debt crisis' were first used in 1982.  It's not a crisis, it's a chronic 
illness, with political reasons behind it." 
 
    According to a 1997 U.N. report, "the debt of the 41 highly indebted 
poor countries now totals $215 billion, up from $183 billion in 1990, and 
$55 billion in 1980." 
 
    The indebtedness of the poorest countries was, she added, a form of 
slavery exercised by rich Western countries to keep poor countries "under 
the thumb of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund." 
Indebtedness, she said, was a far more efficient form of enslavement than 
colonialism.  It was used by the rich nations to ensure that the prices of 
main commodities were kept low, and this was of great benefit to 
transnational companies and the privileged populations of the West. 
 
    The press conference was one of a string of events held at the 
Ecumenical Center as the WCC brought pressure to bear before political 
leaders meet at the G8 summit meeting of the world's seven major industrial 
nations and Russia.  The meeting in Cologne will consider proposals which 
the G8 leaders claim will help to reduce the huge debts of the poorest 
countries. 
 
    However, George yesterday described the G8 leaders as "incapable of 
running a pizza stand."  She called on churches to examine with a highly 
critical eye any decisions on debt at the G8 summit.  "Read the fine 
print," she said, adding that many similar meetings in recent years had 
produced resolutions which initially seemed generous towards poor nations 
but were not so generous when details were examined. 
 
    The WCC's statement is also highly critical of the proposals to be 
discussed at Cologne, where G8 leaders will consider broadening and 
relaxing the criteria of the Highest Indebted Poor Country Initiative 
(HIPC), intended to assist the most indebted countries, most of them in 
Africa. 
 
    The WCC's general secretary, German theologian Konrad Raiser, was 
highly sceptical yesterday of the new HIPC proposals, declaring them to be 
"too little [and] far too late."  He said that so far the HIPC project had 
helped only one-sixth of the countries it should have assisted. 
 
    Among other demands, the WCC statement, which is based on a resolution 
of the WCC's eighth assembly, held in Zimbabwe last December, calls on the 
G8 nations to: 
 
    * Cancel the debts of the poorest countries to enable them to enter the 
new millennium with a fresh start 
    * Substantially reduce the debts of the middle-income countries within 
the same time frame 
    * Introduce a new, independent and transparent arbitration process for 
negotiating and agreeing upon international debt cancellation. 
 
    The WCC statement also calls for measures to ensure that corrupt 
leaders in poor countries are prevented from using debt relief to line 
their own pockets.  Raiser said yesterday that while the 
indebtedness of the poor countries was a "scandal," it was just a symptom 
of other problems.  "The present economic system favors corruption," he 
said, "and there is a direct link between corruption and indebtedness." 
Raiser said that many African delegates to the WCC's assembly last December 
had stressed that corruption must be halted. 

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