During the Cold War, both east and west lent money to prop up dictators. In a new report, the Jubilee 2000 Coalition estimates that 22% of debt was given to dictators. The total is more than $451 billion.

The biggest loans were $126 billion to Suharto in Indonesia and $100 billion to the military governments of Brazil. Indeed, the west reduced its lending to Brazil after the advent of democracy 15 years ago, so the loans to the military juntas still account for 56% of Brazil's debt.

South Africa is still paying loans given to the apartheid state to help it block majority rule. Loans were knowingly given to Marcos in the Philippines and Mobutu in Zaire, even though the West knew they were corrupt.

At its first international conference in Rome on 17 November, Jubilee 2000 delegates called for the cancellation of all “odious debt and debt incurred by repressive regimes”.

The new Jubilee 2000 Coalition report stresses the issue of “moral hazard”. Banks should not be able to make loans to repressive regimes which misuse money and violate human rights, and then force the victims of those regimes to repay the loans.