Social and Pastoral BulletinNo. 88Feb. 15, 1999
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From November 15-17, 1998, the first International Jubilee 2000 conference
was held in Rome. Japan was represented by Mrs. Kitazawa Yoko, co-representative
of Jubilee 2000 Japan. There were delegates from 18 northern countries
and 20 southern countries, including Angola and Ghana. 12 international
organizations, like the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions
(ICFTU), the World Council of Churches (WCC), the Catholic Church and others
also attended the conference.
Jubilee's stand to writing off unpayable debts only once was challenged
by the African group on the grounds that the problem is not "unpayable
debts", but the issue is rather "debts have been imposed on them
by the industrial countries, from the colonial times, and consequently
they should not be paid, because they are immoral". Further on, they
stressed that debt relief should be, unconditionally, provided and not
only given to the poorest countries. Instead of the term in use, "poor"
that is misleading, "impoverished" should be used in the document.
The official Rome declaration included all those discussions of the conference.
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England, among all industrial countries, has the most dynamic Jubilee national
campaign. Since its start in 1993, the campaign proceeds on with the collaboration
of about 90 powerful civic groups, Christian churches, trade unions, medical
doctors' associations and ngos.
Jubilee 2000 plans to present 220 million signatures to the next G8 summit
of Heads of governments that will take place in Germany, next June. Many
German organizations are already preparing events and demonstrations for
the occasion. Germany, during the old East German regime, provided large
military and economic aid to Ethiopia and as a result is the largest European
country with official bilateral debts. Together with Japan Germany is against
debt cancellation.
The North American campaign started in October 1998, and it already covers
26 States with a confederation of over 180 organizations. Protestant Minister
Jace Jackson who participates in the campaign has become its national symbol.
Political lobbying to make the Senate pass legislation on debt relief is
one of the main activities of the American campaign. Canada, Spain and
other northern countries have also their own national campaigns.
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After Hurricane Mitch hit Nicaragua and Honduras, the Parliament and citizens
of both governments in agreement demanded an immediate cancellation of
their debts. Both countries owed over 10 billion dollars and the repayment
of the national debts had climbed to 80% of the national budget, in the
case of Honduras, and 50% for Nicaragua. They had hoped to earn foreign
revenues from coffee and banana cash crops, but the hurricane destroyed
vast areas in such a way that they can not recover anything. Thus, they
are in no position to repay their debts.
The Jubilee 2000 Afrika Campaign was launched in Accra, Ghana, on April
1998 by 5 International organizations. The Accra Declaration adopted at
the meeting held there decided to organize national Jubilee campaigns in
all African countries.
As a consequence of the structural adjustment programs imposed by the IMF
in West Africa, the currency was devaluated by 50 % and the market prices
of agricultural products, like coffee, cocoa and raw cotton sunk provoking
the increase of the national debt.
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The devaluation of the local currency in East Africa was even more serious,
almost 100 per cent drawing the national debt to an astronomic increase.
In order to repay the debt, the country was forced to change all its arable
land into cash crops for export, with the result of having to depend on
imported food for feeding the population. Further on, in Kenya for instance,
the government used up all its foreign reserves to pay back debt and since
it is not able to pay small farmers for their farm products, farmers are,
very often, obliged to borrow money at high interest rates from usurers.
Leaders of groups demanding the government payment for their farm products
are eliminated and people are caught in a vicious circle.
It was decided after the Rome conference to hold the next international
meeting in Manila, in November 1999. In Asia, Japan and the Philippines
are the only two countries with national Jubilee campaigns, and there is
hope that, the next Manila conference will foster Asian national campaigns.
The role of Japan is expected to increase.
(Kitazawa Yoko, co-Representative of Japan Jubilee campaign)
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December 1, 1998. Pope John Paul II made an official appeal to the industrial countries to diminish the public
debt of developing countries in order to get rid of "the shadows of
death". "Debt is threatening the future of many countries and
even if it is impossible to write it off totally, it should, at least,
be greatly reduced. It is the role of Christians to raise their voices
on behalf of the world poor. Several poor countries live under the oppression
from huge debts they can never pay back. A cooperation that surpasses all
cultures, races, nationalities and religions is a must to solve this issue".
December 2, 1998. Kyodo News Service released an article on the Japan Jubilee campaign. The article tells about
the start of the campaign in Japan with the cooperation of religious, workers
and citizens groups. Japan's campaign aims at providing information to
the public on the realities of debtor countries and at a national campaign
for signatures till the end of next March.
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December 4, 1998. The German Minister for International Development called the claims of Jubilee's 2000 "justified" and declared
that the German government was ready to include them into its own proposals.
She affirmed that the government was positively thinking about the reduction
of debts, and although it had, already, accepted the HIPCS initiative program
for the reduction of debt proposed by the World Bank, there was a need
of further new initiatives at the next G8 summit.
UN Anan General Secretary exhorted the industrial countries at the Security Council and the General
Assembly to take the lead in reducing the serious debts of African countries.
This recommendation indicates that, due to the debt, there is a big problem
to obtain the funds to address the basic needs of the populations, and
since the responsibility for the accumulation of debt lies also with the
international community there is a need to rethink policies that include
the writing off of debts.
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The UN General Secretary recommended that, in the mean time, all creditor
countries should abandon the bilateral credit loans owed to them by the
most poor African countries, and that, international financial institutions
should, speedily, provide easy capital to be used by the highly indebted
poor countries.
Holland declared that it had written off the debts of Honduras and Nicaragua badly hit
by Hurricane Mitch which destroyed 70-80% of arable land there. Nevertheless,
the creditor countries of the Paris Club stop short of writing off public
debts and just decided on a three-year moratorium on Central American debt.
The English Jubilee campaign made public its discontent.
The English Newspaper, the Christian Science Monitor, supported in its editorial (4 January,
1999) the stand of the Jubilee campaign stressing that the actual conditions
to reduce the debt were too severe. The Newspaper pointed out that there
is a need to return to the motivation behind the Marshall Plan, right after
War World II, when many of today's industrial countries were saved by the
Plan.
The writer Salmon Rushdie in an article that appeared in The Guardian (England, 6 January, 1999)
says that, if we do not want the new one thousand years being seized by
dictators, violence or fake ideologies, we must write debts down.
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Timetable for Action
Japan Jubilee campaign aims at submitting one million signatures from Japan to the G8 summit in Germany. A booklet explaining the issues involved in the campaign has just been published (300Yen=$2.5). Please, contact E-mail: parc@jca.ax.apc.org
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