Daily Press Cuttings

 

Friday 9th June 2000

The Economist: World Bank/Oxfam: Oxfam Policy director Justin Forsyth responds to the recent World Bank research that developing countries should focus primarily on economic growth and stabilisation of their economy. He argues it is the quality of growth that is vital. Globalisation is creating the opportunities for those with the assets, skills and crucially, the education needed to operate in increasingly competitive markets. Those without—the landless, the urban poor and the illiterate—are being left behind. The World Bank needs to throw its weight behind the re-distributive policies required to achieve economic growth and greater equity. Chad/Cameroon: Article looks at the controversial oil pipeline approved by the World Bank this week.

The Guardian: Sierra Leone/UK: UK Foreign Secretary Robin Cook visited the Murray Amputee and War Wounded camp in the Sierra Leone capital yesterday. Greeting young victims of the conflict, he commented that it beggars belief that anyone would deliberately chop off the limb of a child of only a few months.

FT: Africa (yesterday's paper): Former UK foreign secretary Douglas Hurd refers to the civil wars in Sudan, Angola and Congo and the economic and political problems of Zimbabwe and comments: “How shallow now seems President Clinton's talk of an African renaissance. How irrelevant the preaching of forgiveness of debt as the cure for Africa's ills. How misguided the implied assumption in Kofi Annan's review of the 1994 Rwanda genocide that next time the international community would intervene effectively. In spite of his efforts in Africa, we are back at square one.” Bangladesh: Bangladesh yesterday announced budget proposals focused on increasing tax revenue, stimulating industrial growth and developing the capital market. The proposals announced by Shah A.M.S. Kibria, the finance minister, are likely to be criticised by international aid donors for increasing defence spending by 7 per cent but will be praised for allocating more money to education and for banning the import of high-polluting two-stroke engines. Philippines: The Philippine national legislature has quickened the pace of economic reform by passing important bills on the power sector, e-commerce and on incentives for foreign investors. Indonesia: Article looks at a series of mistakes that have undermined the Indonesian president's standing. The governor of the central bank has accused President Wahid of using threats to force him aside. His style of playing off one side against another served him well in his rise to power but critics say is less suited to the hands-on practical leadership Indonesia now needs. Zimbabwe: With most of Zimbabwe's gold mines operating at a loss because of rapid inflation and the government's fixed exchange rate policy, a number of mines will be forced to close soon, according to the Chamber of Mines.

The Independent: Mexico: The Mexican president, Ernesto Zedillo, will press US President Bill Clinton in Washington today to act over the killings of illegal Mexican migrants by gun-toting frontier vigilantes.

IHT: Indonesia: Left destitute by one powerful earthquake and terrified by another, homeless Sumatrans on Thursday protested against government inaction and a political rival accused Indonesia's president of heartlessness for going abroad instead of visiting the disaster zone.

Thursday 8th June 2000

The Guardian: Nigeria: Lawyers preparing to freeze at least $450 million held in accounts in Britain by the late Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha have warned the banks involved that they will face prosecution if they allow the money to leave the country before formal criminal proceedings are brought in British courts later this month. Nigerian sources say they have evidence that some of the 20-30 accounts held in Britain were in General Abacha's own name. On the basis of a list of more than 500 transactions most of the funds are thought to be in branches of the Midland (now HSBC), Barclays, Citibank and the French Bank Credit Agricole-Indosuez. So far more than $1.2 billion has been frozen in banks in Switzerland and Luxembourg, but Britain is believed to have been the focal point of transactions that spanned more than 100 accounts in several countries. China: China is struggling to cope with a catastrophic drought that has turned the Yellow river into a trickle, dried up deep wells and turned vast areas of farmland into arid waste. Zimbabwe: Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe said yesterday that his government would seize all the country's land and if any whites were allowed to continue farming it would be out of “our own charity”. He was giving a talk to his party's 120 candidates for the parliamentary elections due on June 24^th and 25^th.

FT: India: India's ability to achieve high economic growth and lift its people out of poverty depends on the government speeding up structural reform and getting a grip on the soaring budget deficit, according to Horst Köhler, managing director of the IMF. The IMF expects the Indian economy to grow by 6 per cent this year rather than the 8 per cent target of the government of Atal Behari Vajpayee. Kenya: Daniel arap Moi, Kenya's president, made a rare personal appeal yesterday for Ksh 11.5 billion (£100 million) in international aid as his country reeled from the “natural calamities” of drought, famine and AIDS. His plea was an indication of the depths of the crisis facing Kenya after years of corruption, economic mismanagement and extreme weather conditions, brought to a head with grim consequences this year by a countrywide shortage of rains. Export earnings are threatened by falling tea production. The country is likely to receive an IMF PRGF loan later this year. Nigeria: Mohammed Abacha, eldest surviving son of the late Nigerian dictator General Sani Abacha, has been charged with corruption and money-laundering as part of a Swiss investigation into the looting of billions of dollars from government coffers by the Abacha family and associates. Africa: Personal comment from former UK foreign secretary Douglas Hurd that Africa need the equivalent of its own NATO. Sierra Leone: FT leader says that the call for an embargo on diamonds fuelling wars in Africa should not be used as an excuse to avoid the real issue: how to make Sierra Leone governable once again.

IHT: ILO/AIDS: The prevalence of AIDS is threatening to cause a serious decline in the number of workers over the next two decades, particularly in Sub Saharan African countries, according to a new report by the International Labour Organisation. The projected drop in the number of workers will also compel more children to work, especially those orphaned because of AIDS, and is likely to unravel gains made by women in the workplace.

The Times: Sri Lanka: 20 people including a cabinet minister were killed by a suicide bomber at a remembrance day parade in Colombo.

Wednesday 7th June 2000

FT: Chad/Cameroon/World Bank: The World Bank yesterday approved $193 million in financing to help support a controversial $3.7 billion oil development and pipeline project to link oilfields in southern Chad to the coast of Cameroon. World Bank support has been considered critical to the project's success. The consortium of companies backing it, led by Exxon Mobil as operator, Petronas of Malaysia and Chevron, had said they could not have proceeded with World Bank involvement. Liberia/Sierra Leone/UK: Britain said yesterday it was seeking US and European help to persuade Liberia to cut its links with the Sierra Leone rebels, as one of several moves to offset the impact of next week's withdrawal of UK marines from the west African country.

IHT: Peru: The Organisation of American States, rebuffing efforts by the United States and Canada to take a tougher line with Peru, has voted to dispatch a high-level mission to press President Alberto Fujimori to adopt a wide range of democratic reforms. The final resolution represented a diplomatic compromise that did not reject the outcome of the recent elections. Laos: Two people were believed killed Tuesday morning when a bomb exploded at the central bus station in Vientiane, the capital of Laos. Chad/Cameroon: With US support, the World Bank approved a $3.5 billion project Tuesday to develop an oil pipeline in Chad and Cameroon in West Africa, despite widespread concerns about the potential for corruption and environmental damage. The pipeline the critics say will threaten livelihoods of the Bagueli people, or pygmies, and endanger the habitats of black rhinos, gorillas and chimpanzees.

The Guardian: Solomon Islands/UK: MEP Glenys Kinnock and a fellow member of the European parliament, John Corrie, were yesterday trapped in a hotel in the Solomon Islands and were involved in a mediator's role as the country's coup continued. Diamonds: Full-page analysis on the diamond trade and consideration of how an embargo would effect the rebels fighting in Sierra Leone.

Tuesday 6th June 2000

FT: Congo (Kinshasa): Ugandan and Rwandan forces clashed yesterday for the third time this year in the eastern Congolese diamond-trading town of Kisangani, only a month before the expected deployment of UN peacekeepers. The clashes are a worrying setback as the UN prepares to send to Kisangani an advance contingent of 5500 peacekeepers as part of efforts to end the Democratic Republic of Congo's war. Ukraine: The last working reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant will be shut down on December 15^th, Ukraine said yesterday, using a visit by President Bill Clinton to announce the move. Nigeria: Nigerian students rioted in three south-western cities yesterday in protest against a 50 per cent rise in the price of fuel, amid rising social tension and threats of general strike on Thursday. The government is under pressure to fall in line with IMF conditions—one of which is the eventual deregulation of the fuel sector—in order to secure a proposed $1 billion standby agreement. Sierra Leone/UK: Britain will today call for an international embargo on Sierra Leone diamonds, which have fuelled civil war in the West African country. Robin cook, the foreign secretary, believes a UN embargo, backed by sanctions, is crucial to stopping the conflict.

IHT: Indonesia: At least 58 people died and 500 were injured in a strong earthquake in Sumatra that lasted for minutes on the Indonesian island of Sumatra on Sunday night and was followed by hundreds of aftershocks on Monday. Indonesia: In a move that seems likely to snuff out Indonesia's latest flirtation with capital controls, the new head of the IMF, Horst Köhler, declared Monday that closing off its capital markets would hinder Indonesia's fragile recovery. Africa: Callisto Madavo, vice president for the Africa region at the World Bank, challenges the recent pessimism over Africa. He outlines three basic needs: improved governance and prevention of civil conflict, investment in people as a second imperative and a third priority to accelerate investment and diversify economies. The distance Africa has travelled in 10 years cannot be eclipsed by storm clouds. That progress is very encouraging to those who know the continent well. In offices, factories and fields, a new generation is applying knowledge denied to their parents, and opening new opportunities for their children.

The Guardian: UN/gender: Five years after the UN adopted an ambitious plan to achieve equality for women, this year's agenda may reverse some of the gains made, human rights and women's groups warned as delegates from 188 countries met yesterday in New York to assess the progress they had made.

Monday 5th June 2000

The Independent: Indonesia: A massive earthquake centred off the coast of Sumatra killed at least 25 people and caused panic on the Indonesian island yesterday. The earthquake which was estimated at 7.9 on the Richter scale, was felt 335 miles away in Jakarta, and injured scores of people in Bengkulu, a city of about 1.2 million people on Sumatra's west coast. Sierra Leone/UK: Britain will keep nearly 300 military personnel in Sierra Leone after the rest of its task force is withdrawn by the middle of this month, the UK government is due to announce this week.

IHT: Laos/Vietnam: The Vietnamese government is intervening militarily in Laos to help the government in its fight against Hmong minority rebels, western diplomats report from the capital Vientiane. One diplomat said: “The Vietnamese Army has sent soldiers and military equipment to bolster the Lao Army, which is struggling to control the situation. We have seen military vehicles carrying Vietnamese troops on the streets of the capital.” Argentina: Economist Paul Krugman argues that the troubled Argentinian economy requires the out-of-fashion Keynesian solution of government stimulation.

FT: Gender: Timed for the opening of a woman's conference today, the UN Statistics Division prepared a report card that showed some gains but persistent disparities since the landmark 1995 international women's conference in Beijing. Fewer women die in childbirth than ever before. but an African woman's risk of dying from pregnancy-related causes is one in 16, in Asia it is one in 65 and in Europe one in 1400. Corruption/Lesotho: The Lesotho Highlands Water Project bribery and corruption trial begins today at the Lesotho High Court in the capital Maseru. Several companies, including Sir Alexander Gibb & partners of the UK, ABB, the Swiss Swedish group are amongst those accused of paying bribes to the then chief executive of the project, either directly or through intermediaries.

The Guardian: Chad/Cameroon/UK: Britain will tomorrow throw its weight behind a project backed by the World Bank to build a controversial oil pipeline between Chad and Cameroon—despite fierce opposition from environmentalist and human rights groups who warn that it will evict local tribes from their ancient rainforest. In a move that puts her at odds with groups such as Greenpeace, Clare Short, the international development secretary, will cast Britain's vote on the World Bank's executive board in favour of releasing funding for the pipeline between Chad and Cameroon. Zimbabwe: President Robert Mugabe's government stepped up its attack on Zimbabwe's white minority yesterday by launching an assault on senior judges of British descent.

The Voice: Guyana: President Bharrat Jagdeo has ordered an airlift of emergency aid to 200 flood victims in Gunns Strip on Guyana's Essequibo River, 250 miles upstream from the Rupununi river. Haiti: Former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's party has won control of Haiti's Senate in the country's recent general election. Results of the May 21 vote, which was delayed at least four times, indicated strong support for the former priest, who is expected to run for president again this autumn.