Daily Press Cuttings

Friday 14^th July 2000

Guardian: Philippines: Front page article on the Payatas rubbish dump in Manila which collapsed, killing some locals estimate up to 1000 people. The official toll is 173 missing, but many living at the dump were not registered with authorities. Italy/Jubilee 2000: Italy threw down the gauntlet to the rest of the G7 by passing legislation setting a new standard for debt relief in developing countries. A spokeswoman for Jubilee 2000, the global coalition of charities campaigning for debt relief, said the Italian legislation represented a distinct move away from HIPC. The legislation commits Italy to cancelling a minimum of $4 billion and a maximum of $6 billion of debts within 3 years of the passing of the bill and could allow up to 78 countries to qualify. Sierra Leone/UK: Britain announced further military support for the Sierra Leone government yesterday, including more ammunition for its army. Guardian Editor: Picture of Jubilee 2000 supporters alongside an article saying the security precautions to keep undesirables out of next week's G8 summit have failed to take account of the problems caused by drunken, marauding US marines. Will Tony Blair be tempted to march them off to the nearest cash-point?

FT: US/HIPC: The US House of Representatives in a surprise vote yesterday, backed a sharp increased in US funding next year for a debt relief initiative to help the world's poorest nations. In an unusual cross party vote, 26 house Republicans backed a Democrat-sponsored move to add $156 million funding next year for the HIPC initiative. The amendment passed by 216 votes to 211. UK/Export Credits: FT leader is highly critical of Export Credit Agencies. The OECD has gone some way to tackle ECA abuses by agreeing to disciplines on export credit subsidies and curbs on corporate bribery. They need to go further. The rationale for the whole system needs to be examined. the test is simple: does it fund commercially viable projects? If yes, these should be left to the market. If no, they should be rejected or referred to development agencies. Nepal: Nepal is seeking tenders of $2.6 billion in contracts for seven dams, including one cancelled by the World Bank five years ago for environmental concerns. Uganda/AIDS: Letter from Clare Ansell of ActionAid, saying that although Uganda has a long way to go in mitigating the impact of the epidemic and further reducing its spread, it has turned a corner by being open about HIV/Aids as a national problem.

IHT: AIDS/debt: Picture of debt campaigners at the Durban AIDS conference emphasising the link between debt and aids.

The Independent: India: Following the landslide in the Philippines earlier this week, torrential rain has now caused the collapse of a hillside in Bombay with at least 60 dead and 200 missing. The disaster, which occurred on Wednesday evening, was made worse by the fact that migrant day labourers had stayed at home after work had been cancelled by the monsoon conditions. Families had been warned of the danger but severe poverty gave them little choice but to remain. Bombay's poor are often forced to live in slum dwellings cut into hillsides due to the lack of space in the crowded city. Almost two-thirds of Bombay's population live in slums. AIDS: The 13th World AIDS conference in Durban will be closed today by Nelson Mandela. Journalist Alex Duval-Smith suggests an optimistic end to the conference. Bringing together all the major players in the AIDS crisis he reports that pledges from the World Bank, Bill Gates and the pharmaceutical companies exceed the annual $300 million spent on fighting the virus in Africa. However Peter Piot, UNAids director, has called for $1.8 billion, a target that has still not been reached. UK/Turkey: Article by Deborah Orr on the controversy surrounding the Ilisu dam project. She suggests postponing the project for 10 years to allow time for provision of new homes for displaced Kurdish people or investigation of other policies other than dam-building. Vietnam: The United States and Vietnam have signed a trade pact which could pave the way for a normalisation of relations between the two countries.

Thursday 13^th July 2000

FT: US/HIPC: Lawrence Summers, the US Treasury secretary, said yesterday that Congress was proposing to provide “grossly inadequate” resources to relieve the debt of the world's poorest countries. The president, Bill Clinton, would he said be advised to veto the foreign spending bill if funding was not increased. The house of Representatives began considering the bill yesterday and is expected to vote on it today. The administration requested $435 million this year for debt relief, but the House bill provides only $69 million and the Senate version, $75 million. The HIPC initiative is expected to be a priority topic at the G8 summit meeting in Okinawa, Japan next week. The US is expected to be criticised for slowing down the process. UNICEF/AIDS: Government will have to conduct the “largest mobilisation of resources in their history” to halt the AIDS pandemic, the greatest threat for many countries, the UN children's fund said yesterday. In its annual report on “The Progress of Nations,” UNICEF was harshly critical of leadership failures that led to the crisis and of the “virtual abandonment” of sub-Saharan Africa to a disaster that could engulf other regions. While the pandemic is the report's focus, Carol Bellamy, head of UNICEF, also addressed “an enormous blot on the conscience of the world” in 41 countries whose debt costs consumed three to five times their resources for basic services.” UK/Turkey: The international development committee accused the Department of Trade and Industry of “the worst form of export credit practice” for backing the Ilisu dam project.

Guardian: ECGD/UK/Turkey: The government's credibility was dealt a stinging blow yesterday by the international development select committee. MPs from all parties demanded that the proposed underwriting by the Export Credits Guarantee Department of the Ilisu hydroelectric dam project in Turkey be withdrawn immediately because it infringes human rights, threatens peace in the region and contravenes international standards. Corruption: Article looks at the emerging war against corruption carried out by an alliance of big business and non-governmental organisations such as Transparency International (TI) and Global Witness. UNICEF: Annual report identifies poverty, HIV/AIDS and war as the “huge obstacle mountains as we enter the 21^st Century.”

IHT: Russia: Russian president Vladimir Putin will go to Okinawa hoping for a rescheduling of recent loans and a new IMF agreement, but this may be withheld as a promise for the future until Mr. Putin's intentions are clear. Colombia/US: A cabinet reshuffle comes as the Clinton administration begins to deliver a £1.3b aid package. Money intended to slow huge increase in cocaine and heroin production and weaken finances of Marxist-Leninist guerrilla groups. This is also part of a larger $7.5bn counter narcotics and social support programme. Argentina - According to Amnesty International torture is systematically practised in Buenos Aires jails.

The Independent: Africa: In a feature on Africa, Journalist Hamish McRae says that the three things that Africa needs are better governance, harnessing the potential of the new communications technologies and coping with AIDS.

Wednesday 12^th July 2000

Guardian: Zimbabwe: A story of African success reports Jonathan Steele. Despite three major problems facing the country; the AIDS crisis, an overwhelmingly patriarchal society and the weakness of the economy (largely due to IMF structural adjustment programmes in the early 1990's), Zimbabwe is a good-news story. The literacy rate is around 90 per cent, attempts to use racism during the election campaign failed, civil society is vibrant, tensions between the two main ethnic groups are low and there is a strong opposition for the first time in the country's history. Zimbabwe now needs a new style of government. Nigeria: Reported that 250 feared dead after the explosion of an oil pipeline on Monday. The suggested cause is that the pipeline was punctured by local people who were siphoning fuel to sell by the roadside. Activists have been campaigning for government and oil company compensation to communities for land use and industrial pollution. AIDS: British expert, Roy Anderson of UNAIDS, has warned that the number of people infected with HIV is rising and will become progressively worse in the next 10-15 years. Globalisation means the West cannot escape the consequences of a major epidemic in Africa or Asia. Professor Anderson states that “this is the biggest infectious disease problem that has faced humanity in the course of human history.” Corporate bribery: Diary piece which reports that this is still one area in which Britain leads the world! Of 54 firms the World Bank has barred from involvement in its projects, no less than 36 are British!

FT: Diamonds: Conclusion of the paper's special report on the diamond trade which makes clear that the industry should do much more to clean up its act. Global Witness, an NGO, is at the forefront of a campaign calling for reform and wants to ensure that consumers are well aware of the role of diamonds in perpetuating conflict in Africa. A separate article in the business section reports that De Beers have announced a marketing shake-up to emphasise selling diamonds as quickly as possible, this is triggered partly by a diamond stockpile of $4 billion at the end of 1999. Editorial/Diamonds: Highlights that trade in illicit diamonds is part of Africa's crisis. De Beers, as controller of 60 per cent of world trade, is central to any solution. If De Beers cannot enforce its intention to refuse dealing in conflict diamonds then governments should attack its cartel powers. Argentina: The IMF has praised the Argentine economy following a successful bond issue of $1.25 billion. Stanley Fischer commented that Argentina had “over-performed” on first half-year economic targets. G8/Aid/Japan: As part of a conflict prevention effort due to be launched by G8 foreign ministers this week, Japan is expected to switch aid funds into controlling firearms. With no planned increase in the overall aid budget this will involve cuts in other programmes. AIDS: Report from the Durban AIDS conference that safety trials will begin next month for the first AIDS vaccine specifically designed for Africa. However experts say that even if trials are successful production of a commercial vaccine is at least five years away. James Wolfensohn, World Bank president, commented that “the private sector has a pivotal role to play” in finding a solution to the crisis. Philippines: Death toll from the landslide at the squatter settlement in northern Manila is reported to have reached over 100. Heavy rainfall was the immediate cause but underlying reasons are extreme poverty, neglect by local authorities and uncontrolled urbanisation.

IHT: Peru: Editorial criticising Mr Fujimori for retaining his presidency by winning an illegitimate election. The Organisation of American States should demand a strict democratisation programme in Peru. Zimbabwe: A report by the Commonwealth of former British territories states that free choice was inhibited at last month's elections but stops short of declaring that they were not free and fair. Thirty one people were killed and thousands beaten and left homeless in the run up to the vote. Congo: A statement by the International Red Cross said that at least 760 people were killed in last month's fighting between Ugandan and Rwandan forces. Child Poverty/OECD: John Williams, a former senior UNICEF official, suggests that child poverty in wealthy countries is not necessary. Following the recent UNICEF report “Child Poverty in Rich Nations”, the article says that economic growth has not removed child poverty and what is required is political will and common sense.

Times: Bribery: A former senior executive of Elf-Aquitaine, France's state oil company, has claimed that oil was siphoned off to a slush fund in Liechenstein for use in bribing officials and politicians in Africa and other states.

Tuesday 11th July 2000

The Guardian: Philippines: At least 46 people, including many young children, were killed on the outskirts of the Philippine capital, Manila, when part of an enormous rubbish dump collapsed yesterday on to a group of shanty houses. Dozens are still missing. The dump's foundations had been weakened by Typhoon Kai-Tak, which battered the Philippines for five days, leaving at least 39 people dead. AIDS: Journalist Robin Lustig looks at the impact of AIDS on Sub Saharan Africa and argues for a successful blueprint: first political leaders must tell the truth, second set up community-based education and care programmes, third enlist the help of traditional community leaders, be they religious leaders, or witch doctors, fourth the drug nevirapine should be readily available. It has a dramatic effect on lowering the risk of mother-to-child HIV infection. Haiti: Journalist Owen Boycott writes from Miragoane in Haiti, where poorly paid officials and a convenient location make the Caribbean island an ideal staging post for the cocaine trade. He talks to the chief steward of one of the freighters which brings beds, rice, old fridges, cars from Miami to Haiti. The strong suspicion is that the return cargo to Miami includes drug shipments. Haiti as a country needs debt cancelled to strengthen development, argues London-based Jubilee 2000. However, the US government is currently focusing on withdrawing aid as a punishment for the country's failure to stem the drugs flow.

FT: UK/ECGD: Exporters look set to benefit from a Whitehall shake-up that will see the Treasury surrendering its hands-on powers over the Export Credits Guarantee Department. The move would allow the ECGD, which provides financial cover for exports to high-risk countries, to decide on individual loans without seeking Treasury approval. The Treasury would still set the guidelines and parameters for loans, however. The move follows criticism from the Commons Trade and Industry Committee, which said that the “dead hand” of the Treasury was damaging British exporters by creating unnecessary delays. Diamonds: Full page analysis of the South African mining giant, De Beers, and its shift of strategy to defend its domination of the world diamond industry.

IHT: Cameroon/Chad: Article looks at the proposed oil pipeline and its potential impact on the pygmies dwelling in the rainforests of Cameroon. Cameroon is expected to derive $500 million a year from the project, 3 per cent of the national budget. The challenge for the World Bank will be to ensure that the wealth reaches the poor in the two countries. Global poverty: Comment from the director of the Unicef office for Japan, Manzoor Ahmed, who says that at their meeting in Okinawa, the leaders of the industrialised world should make a collective pledge to help mobilise the necessary resources to reduce global poverty. They should make specific plans to harness and redirect scientific and technological advances to this end. And they should work with developing countries, civil society and the UN to fulfil the pledge.

Independent: Uganda: Priest Gideon Byamugisha, who is HIV positive, highlights this report on the AIDS campaign in Uganda, which has reduced the 16% peak of HIV to 8% since the 1990's. Russia: The motive behind the murder of Mr. Belonenko, Managing Director of Uralmash, the largest industrial company in Russia, was probably his attempt to clean criminals out of Uralmash. Eritrea: Author Thomas Keneally writes that the West still behaves as if the problems in Eritrea are happening on another planet. Eritrea achieved food self-sufficiency in the past year and its emergency is due almost entirely to an illegal invasion. Governments are pledging money to be divided more or less per capita between Ethiopia and Eritrea, yet they are very different. Ethiopia has 8m hungry and Eritrea faces barbarity against ethnic Eritreans in Ethiopia and massive death from hunger and disease in camps. Haiti: Low turn out in elections gave President Artistide a poor hold on the country.

Monday 10th July 2000

The Guardian: G7/debt: The UK Chancellor, Gordon Brown, won the backing of other western countries for his plan to reward poor countries which abandon wars and other conflicts with speedier debt relief. Finance ministers from the G7 have endorsed Britain's proposal that debt relief should be “swift and effective” for post-conflict countries. Their recommendation in a confidential document seen by the Guardian is certain to be rubber-stamped when G7 leaders meet in Okinawa in two weeks. Ian Bray from Oxfam said that this would be another incentive for peace, but argued that it was urgent to rid the debt burden of poor countries already at peace. Finance ministers also agreed to a review of their countries' policies of subsidising arms exports to poor countries. G8/Okinawa/Jubilee 2000: Feature article by Madeleine Bunting, arguing that the G8 nations' failure to deliver debt relief throws doubt on their ability to control global capitalism. She criticises the choice of venue for the Summit in Okinawa, saying that as Tony Blair and Bill Clinton watch the sun set over the Pacific, chilled Japanese beer in hand, they need have no fear that demonstrators will brave the shark-infested waters to wave placards. She says that the Jubilee 2000 publication, Island Mentality, makes for painful reading as it details the lack of progress in delivering debt relief. The achievements of Jubilee 2000 have never looked so fragile. The fear is that the momentum to resolve the issue will simply ebb away. Uganda has not yet had a dollar of debt cancelled, Tanzania has had its debt servicing reduced by only 7 per cent; countries such as Haiti and Nigeria are not even in the queue. AIDS/Structural adjustment: Letter from Dr Dorothy Logie saying that two decades of crushing debt and adjustment programmes have had a significant hand in perpetuating the tragedy of AIDS. As we squeeze the economic lifeblood out of Africa, the spread of AIDS on the continent says as much about our beliefs and our cultural values as it does about Africa's. Russia: Journalist Larry Elliott looks at the state of the Russian economy, where inflation is 2 per cent a month, factories are over-manned and chunks of the capital stock date back to the days of the Soviet Union. The west should not give up on Russia. It is a land of immense potential, but it could easily fall to pieces. Debt forgiveness would be a start.

FT: G7/Fukuoka: Gordon Brown will today attempt to speed up international efforts to write off third world debt by proposing a programme of accelerated relief for war-torn African states. The countries are Burundi, the Central African Republic, Congo Brazzaville, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Somalia—and Burma. IMF/G7: Finance ministers from the G7 agreed a radical plan of reform of the lending facilities of the IMF. The G7 agreed to raise the price of some IMF lending facilities to deter inappropriate access to IMF resources, where private capital should be encouraged. This will not affect the poorest countries with IMF loans, but is intended to discourage middle-income countries from relying on the IMF lending for many years. Jubilee 2000/Bob Geldof: (Saturday's paper) Interview with Jubilee 2000 supporter and former rock star, Bob Geldof. Bob Geldof goes at his mission to end third world debt with such gusto that it is like eating with a preacher...apart from the swearing. Pokemon will make for Nintendo this year more than the combined debt of Niger and Rwanda. ****ing Pokemon! Morally we can agree it's hideous. But pragmatically it is also a nonsense. It is simple. They can't pay. It is a cycle of grinding despair and of poverty. AIDS/Germany: Boehringer Ingelheim, the German pharmaceutical company, has offered free Aids drugs to prevent women in Africa infecting their unborn babies with HIV. Liberia: Charles Taylor, president of Liberia, is stoking the civil war in neighbouring Sierra Leone because he benefits from its illicit diamond trade, western intelligence officials say. Diamonds/Africa: Full page coverage of the global network of arms traffickers and governments behind the “conflict diamond” trade.

Japan Times: (Saturday) Jubilee 2000/Okinawa: With only six months of the Jubilee 2000 campaign remaining, Jubilee 2000 organisers are not optimistic that the Okinawa Group of Eight Summit will produce any new initiatives. Earlier this week, the London-based Jubilee 2000 campaign issued a report criticising G7 leaders for failing to tackle the debt issue, attacking the Okinawa summit as little more than a tropical vacation.

The Observer: G7/ Debt/Conflict: African countries are to be given substantial financial incentives to resolve regional conflicts, a senior G7 source said.

Sunday Business: G7: Ministers faced protesters calling on them to speed up moves to cancel the debts of the world's poorest countries. “Finance ministers presiding over bulging chests of budget surpluses have turned their backs on the poor of the world, while still collecting $60 million a day from them,” said Ann Pettifor, director of the Jubilee 2000 Coalition.

The Times: Debt relief/UK: The UK Chancellor yesterday announced that war-torn countries could benefit from accelerated debt relief if they turned their backs on violent conflict.

Daily Express: G7: Finance ministers reaffirmed their commitment to help the 40 most heavily indebted nations. But they offered little specific on how they would get the stalled initiative moving again. They confirmed that a report on money-laundering will be released at the Okinawa meeting.

Daily Telegraph: AIDS/debt: The President of Botswana, Festus Mogae, issued a warning yesterday that his country was threatened with “extinction”, due to the catastrophe of the AIDS, sweeping his country. Hundreds of AIDS activists marched through Durban demanding that drug companies make anti-AIDS drugs affordable. They also urged Western governments to write off more third world debt to allow increased spending to try to contain the pandemic.

IHT: G7/Fukuoka: The G7 finance ministers, meeting in the southern Japanese city of Fukuoka issued a statement confident on global growth, but cautioned by the impact on world economic conditions of the price of crude oil. The meeting also produced a promise to work harder to relieve poor country indebtedness and rejected the idea of writing off some of Russia's $42 billion of leftover Soviet-era debt. The G7 reviewed their work on HIPC but deferred action until the summit meeting. Ministers `examined and agreed to specific proposals' for debt relief plan's `swift and effective implementation particularly for post-conflict countries.' US Treasury Secretary, Larry Summers, denied that G7 was slowing its push for debt relief. He said that there were `a number of countries which have started to benefit from interim debt relief' but he added `other factors such as civil wars or other governance problems' had slowed debt relief measures. Haiti: A second round vote in elections provoked international criticism and a boycott by nearly every opposition party. International observers have refused to monitor the second round out of protest.

El Pais: Ecuador: Ecuador is undergoing its worst socio-economic crisis amidst its transition to dollarisation. Strikes calling for salary increases have led to increase in salaries (140% for state employees and 120% for private). These have been accompanied by reduction in petrol price subsidies, which led to a 60% price increase. A second package of reforms, Trolebus II, will be put to Congress this month. It includes labour reform and privatisation of the state airline Tame.