Daily Press Cuttings

 

Friday 11th February 2000

IHT: USA/Africa: Randall Robinson, executive director of TransAfrica writes on Africa and the major debt the USA owes African Americans for its role in slavery. The American government for hundreds of years played a major role in deconstructing Africa and millions of its issue. It abused them as beasts of burden and released them uncompensated into a racial environment certain to hold them fast in perpetuity to the economic bottom of American society. It is now the United States' turn to atone.

The Economist: Ecuador: Letter from Thomas Dawson of the External Relations department of the IMF, refuting the claim by the Economist that the IMF encouraged Ecuador to default on some of its debt and then dallied over coming to its aid.

FT: UNCTAD: “A world parliament on globalisation” is how Rubens Ricupero, secretary general of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development has described Unctad's 10^th ministerial gathering in Bangkok tomorrow. The conference to be opened by Kofi Annan, is intended to focus on ways in which globalisation can enhance development through trade and investment, and how to tilt its benefits more fairly towards poorer nations. While a large contingent of NGOs, particularly from developing countries, is descending on Bangkok, demonstrations like those at the Seattle WTO meeting are unlikely. World Trade: Focus on the new Lome agreement between the EU and its former colonies. Delegates are due to meet in Fiji in May to sign a new deal on trade and aid which is likely to last for years. Ukraine: The IMF is broadening its investigation into alleged irregularities at Ukraine's central bank. Newly uncovered documents show the central bank engaged in financial manoeuvres in 1997 and 1998 to dress up reserves in order to qualify for continued IMF credits.

The Guardian: Indonesia: Article looks at the economic and political difficulties facing the new president of Indonesia, Abdurrahman Wahid. The health ministry has slashed its budget by almost a third to fund debt repayments. The education department's funding has been cut by more than 20 per cent in the next financial year.

The Independent: Angola: Angolan rebels are laundering the proceeds of illegal diamond deals through British banks despite UN sanctions designed to stop the trade, the Select Committee on International Development has learnt. The committee described as scandalous the failure of Britain and other countries to implement the sanctions against the guerrilla organisation UNITA.

Thursday 10th February 2000

IHT: Congo (Kinshasa)/UN: After a series of high-level meetings in January about how to end a widening war in Congo, the United States has introduced a Security Council resolution to create a peacekeeping force of 5500 troops for the country, but it said they should not be deployed until the warring factions had stopped fighting. The resolution would permit peacekeepers to use force to protect themselves, but it would prohibit “peace enforcement or forcible disarmament.” IMF: Michel Camdessus, outgoing Managing Director of the IMF, said that the world economy was in strong shape after the financial crises of the 1990s and that some of the credit should go to the IMF for this. Finishing 13 years at the helm he said that he was proud to have made the IMF more transparent, but that his biggest disappointment was the failure to change its image. He said that people still said that “the IMF killed babies”, alluding to critics who argued that austerity programmes that the IMF imposed on borrowing countries forced cutbacks in crucial social services.

The Guardian: Education/Oxfam: Plans for a flagship UN conference on tackling the education crisis in developing countries were thrown into confusion last night when Oxfam announced it was pulling out from the organising committee. The Dakar forum marks the 10^th anniversary of the international pledge on basic education for all, which was supposed to have been achieved this year. In many countries education enrolment rates have got worse rather than improved since 1990. Oxfam commented: “Having shamefully failed to deliver on the commitments they made 10 years ago, governments are being asked to sign on to a blueprint that commits them to nothing—and which will deliver nothing.” The agency estimates that delivering universal primary education will cost $8 billion a year for the next 10 years and wants the west to meet half of that sum. Congo (Kinshasa)/UK: Tony Blair, the UK Prime Minister, has ordered a tightening of arms exports to countries involved in the Congo civil war which has claimed tens of thousands of lives. He said that British companies wanting to export arms to Congo and the six countries surrounding it would be subject to new rules, however the decision to allow the sale of the hawk spare parts is not being revoked. Aid: Western aid budgets are rising for the first time in five years as Britain and other countries increased spending in the aftermath of the Asian crisis and in writing off the debts of the world's poorest countries. Official development assistance rose in 1998 by nearly 10 per cent to $53 billion. However, aid budgets in most western countries average just 0.25 per cent of national income, well below the official UN target of 0.7 per cent. UK: Charity leaders welcomed plans set out yesterday by the chancellor, Gordon Brown, for a national campaign to promote giving which could boost voluntary sector income by about £1 billion a year. Rwanda/UK: The British company, Mil-Tec, based on the Isle of Man, arranged the export of £3.3 million of hardware to Rwanda and has now been linked with the former army chief arrested in Britain on suspicion of genocide.

FT: Cambodia: Kofi Annan, secretary general of the UN, has remained firm over his demands for international domination of a proposed tribunal to judge Khmer Rouge leaders, rejecting key provisions of Cambodia's plan. Talks over a court to judge Khmer Rouge leaders have been deadlocked for months. World Bank: World Bank lending to Asia is set to fall by more than half this year as economic recovery sets in , prompting the bank to seek a new definition of its relations with countries which are no longer in need of urgent rescue. New lending commitments to east Asia in the fiscal year to June 30 were likely to reach only about $4 billion compared with $9 billion last year.

Wednesday 9th February 2000

FT: Debt relief: The first countries to receive debt relief under an international initiative were approved by the World Bank and the IMF yesterday, amid concerns that the process was slipping behind schedule. Uganda and Bolivia were accepted as meeting the criteria for relief, with approval for Mauritania expected today. Uganda and Bolivia will receive a total of $1.3 billion in debt service relief (net present value). Officials in London and Washington said approval had taken longer than expected. Government officials said the US administration had delayed the process by insisting on strict conditions for poverty reduction strategy papers. Eleven countries are expected to reach the initial decision point of approval by the IMF and the World Bank by the end of April, with 25 doing so by the end of the year.

Meanwhile a group of aid organisations yesterday attacked the secretive and undemocratic way in which the IMF appoints its managing director. The organisations included the debt relief lobbyist Jubilee 2000 and the environmental campaigner Friends of the Earth. Adrian Lovett, deputy director of Jubilee 2000, said: “The IMF and the main creditor nations preach openness and transparency to the rest of the world, but they can't kick the habit of secretive and undemocratic behaviour themselves.” Ukraine: The internet, which is already used by borrowers to launch bonds is becoming a useful tool for debt restructuring when issuers default on their bonds. Ukraine, which last week announced the terms of its $2.6 billion short-term commercial debt exchange, is using the internet and e-mail to reach thousands of retail investors. Nigeria: Letter from Kennedy Emetelu of the Nigerian Consultative Forum International calling for the emphasis on Nigeria's development to be placed not in privatisation of state companies, but rather on two pivotal areas—support and empowerment of small- and medium scale businesses and a lease of life for tertiary education.

The Times: Nigeria: General Sani Abacha, Nigeria's late military ruler, and his family stole £2.7 billion from public funds in his four and a half years in power to June 1998. The figure is the first estimate by the new government of his illegal transfers.

The Daily Telegraph: Sudan: Article focuses on the Swiss-based charity Chrisitian Solidarity International, which pursues the policy of buying freedom for slaves in the Sudan. The CSI's missions have earned criticism from other international aid agencies and the UN who argue that slave buying feeds the market and encourages more raiding by unscrupulous warlords.

The Guardian: Zimbabwe: President Robert Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF party has been accused of unleashing a campaign of violent intimidation for a no vote in Zimbabwe's constitutional referendum, to be held this weekend.

IHT: Brazil: The Brazilian economy defied predictions by growing 0.8 per cent in 1999, despite a currency collapse that threatened to push Latin America's biggest country into crisis.

Wall Street Journal: IMF: Article looks at the candidates to replace Michel Camdessus at the IMF and the lukewarm response to the German candidate and current front-runner, Caio Koch-Weser.

Tuesday 8th February 2000

The Guardian: HIPC/UK/US: UK Chancellor Gordon Brown's target of a fast track to debt relief for 25 of the world's poorest countries is being thwarted by the US Treasury. During two weeks of infighting at the IMF and World Bank, Britain has been putting diplomatic pressure on the Americans to drop their opposition to early debt relief for countries with effective poverty reduction plans. Last night it seemed the US Treasury had won the day with the World Bank expected to announce that a final loan write-off for Uganda had been delayed for several months, although the country is seen as a textbook example of economic and social reform. A senior UK government official said that it was proving to be a real fight to get each country through the programme. Sierra Leone: The UN Security Council approved the strengthening of a UN peacekeeping force in Sierra Leone yesterday from 6000 to 11000 troops, making it the biggest UN field operation. Africa/UK: Comment from Edmund Cairns, senior policy adviser at Oxfam, on the inconsistencies of UK government policy towards Africa. The Department of Trade and Industry approved licences for the sale of machine-gun parts, rifles and ammunition to Kenya in 1998. This is not consistent with the aims of the Department for International Development, which gave £34 million of bilateral aid to Kenya in the same year. Europe/Developing countries: Comment from Jeremy Seabrook on the reaction of European governments to the extreme right coalition in Austria. The world is the site of a civil war in which all humanity is caught up, the war of the rich against the poor, against which conscience objects in vain. Haider knows whose side he is on. The other politicians of Europe know also. But they don't say.

FT: Nigeria: Nigeria's President Olusegun Obasanjo will try to patch up differences with the Paris Club of bilateral creditors and overcome remaining obstacles to an agreement with the IMF during a visit to France this week. His visit follows efforts by the IMF to soften the position of the Paris Club, which may be owed as much as $27 billion of a total external debt of $34 billion, according to the latest IMF estimates. Britain, the single biggest creditor, has pushed hardest for Nigeria's case. The IMF is keen to avoid being seen as the debt collector. IMF officials are aware that despite efforts to include a broad cross-section of Nigerians in their discussions, most remain hostile to an IMF-sponsored reform programme.

The Times: Rwanda/UK: A war crimes suspect linked to the massacre of 100 000 people in Rwanda denied genocide yesterday as a London court paved the way for his extradition to face mass murder charges. Tharcisse Muvunyi, a former colonel in the Rwandan army, is alleged to have been involved in the murder of thousands of ethnic Tutsis in 1994. He has been living in South London for two years.

IHT: USA: US President Clinton presented his 2001 budget proposals on Monday. The administration is predicting a $746 billion federal surplus over the next decade. The budget seeks an increase in military spending to $305.4 billion.

To help the poorest countries the administration is seeking $600 million for an international debt relief effort.