Daily Press Cuttings

 

Friday 28th January 2000

FT: Nigeria: FT leader says that the figure of $645 million frozen in the foreign bank accounts belonging to the late Nigerian dictator, General Abacha, is not only an indictment of the general and his regime. Financial institutions that knowingly channelled the funds have much to answer for, acting not so much as bankers, but as bagmen, complicit in the corruption that has crippled Nigeria. The least they can do is to co-operate with the British and other governments that have responded positively to President Obasanjo's request for help in tracking down suspect bank accounts. Oxfam/Global finance: Letter from director of Oxfam David Bryer responding to Martin Wolf's article on global inequality. He targets three main challenges to shared global prosperity in the 21^st century. Education crisis, continued regional conflict and the proven unfairness of the existing rules for world trade. Resolving these isssues woulf produce shared global prosperity as opposed to ever-greater inequality. Nigeria: Zamfara State in Northern Nigeria has introduced Islamic or Sharia Law, as its governing legal system. This threatens to upset the fragile balance of the Nigerian State, (with its moslem-based North and its Christian–based South) as debate over its constitutionality continues.

The Independent: Indonesia: A government commission is recommending that 200 people, including General Wiranto, should be brought to justice for their role in East Timor. Congo (Kinshasa): The first video evidence of massacres in the DRC has been brought into Kenya by aid workers. There are now serious fears that the massacres could escalate if the international community does not intervene quickly.

IHT: Chad: Human rights groups and individuals in Chad are taking steps to demand justice in prosecuting the former dictator of Chad, Hissene Habre, now resident in Senegal. Ecuador: New York Times leader argues that due to the continued instability and trouble in Ecuador, major reforms must follow before debt relief will be forthcoming.

Economist: NGOs: Detailed analysis of NGOs and their work. Aid and campaign groups, or NGOs, matter more and more in world affairs. But they are often far from being “non-governmental” as they claim. And they are not always a force for good. , whether they actually prove to be as non-governmental and beneficial as they claim. Article concludes that the chief aim of NGOs should be to disband when the job is done.

USA/debt: The following is from US President Clinton's State of the Union address yesterday: “In a world where 1.2 billion people live on less than a dollar a day, we must do our part in the global endeavor to reduce the debts of the poorest countries so they can invest in education, health and economic growth - as the pope and other religious leaders have urged. Last year, Congress made a down payment on America's share. And I ask for your continued support.

And America must help more nations break the bonds of disease. Last year in Africa, AIDS killed 10 times as many people as war did. My budget invests dlrs 150 million more in the fight against this and other infectious killers. Today, I propose a tax credit to speed the development of vaccines for diseases like malaria, TB and AIDS. I ask the private sector and our partners around the world to join us in embracing this cause. Together, we can save millions of lives.”

Thursday 27th January 2000

IHT: Global finance/developing countries/Russia: The outgoing chief economist of the World Bank, Joseph Stiglitz, has not relented in his criticism of the international financial community, which he accuses of excluding poor countries from the decision-making process. In an interview with the IHT prior to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Mr Stiglitz said that the world's poor countries are being denied a seat at the table where key international economic decisions are made even if those decisions hurt them. He continued his criticism of the IMF's handling of the Asian crisis, saying that decisions were made that really adversely affected working people, in particular small businesses. Small businesses faced interest rates that put them into bankruptcy, in some countries with more than 50 per cent of the firms going bankrupt.

In Russia, privatisation had gone ahead without a sufficient legal framework. Rather than providing incentives for wealth creation, there have been incentives for asset stripping. Providing free capital mobility has been an open invitation for people to take out billions and billions of dollars out of the country. Congo (Kinshasa): A meeting between the heads of the 7 African countries involved in the Great Lakes war was successfully hosted by the UN in New York. It is now plain that all the countries want a quick but face-saving exit from the conflict as the socio-economic consequences of war takes its toll. IMF/World Bank: Advocacy groups are planning to disrupt the April Spring Meetings of the IMF and the World Bank. Many of the activists were involved in the protests against the WTO talks last November in Seattle. USA: The Congressional Budget Office says that the US budget surplus (outside of Social Security system of retirement and disability benefits) would reach a total of more than $1.9 trillion over the next ten years.

The Guardian: Ecuador: Ecuador suffered a 60 per cent inflation rate last year, while unemployment has risen to 20 per cent and the cost of the foreign debt is equal to the country's GNP, approximately $15 billion. There is little support for the new president Gustavo Noboa, who has pledged to continue the policy of his predecessor to replace the sucre with the US dollar. Indian and labour leaders denounced the plan as little more than a lifeline to corrupt bankers and big business, while the poor watched food items double in price over the past fortnight. Environment/Africa: Journalist George Monbiot argues that the arid parts of sub-Saharan Africa are becoming still drier due to global warming. Droughts of the kind which used to strike every 40 years are now arriving every four or five. Future famines are therefore likely to be all the more severe.

FT: G20: Canada's finance minister Paul Martin says that complacency has replaced the fears of contagion in the international financial system. He says that the challenge is clear: we must ensure that the benefits of globalisation are fully realised and widely shared—among nations and people everywhere. Globalisation/developing countries: UK International Development Secretary Clare Short announced the government's renewed stance that developing countries should embrace globalisation, rather than opt for economic isolation. In a White Paper to be released in the autumn, focus will be on reforms to global trade to increase trading opportunities for poor countries. Ukraine/debt: Ukraine is to announce next month the terms for its plans for restructuring its $2 billion debt, which would then pave the way to re-establishing its relationship with the IMF. The deal involves swapping the Ukraine's sovereign debt which falls due before 2002 for new international bonds. UK: The Institute of Fiscal Studies estimates that the UK budget surplus will be £13 billion this year and will add up to nearly £100 billion over the next five years.

Wednesday 26th January 2000

IHT: Switzerland/Nigeria: Switzerland is confronting the largest dirty money investigation in its history after disclosures that $654 million has been found in accounts in the names of the former Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha. A the request of Nigeria's new democratic government, Swiss federal officials have frozen the money, scattered in about 140 accounts in 11 banks in Geneva and Zurich. Arms: Comment from Mark Malloch Brown of the UNDP calling for national governments to take the lead in destroying surplus, confiscated or collected small arms and light weapons. More than 2 million people have been killed by small arms in West Africa since 1990 and 16 nations in the region recently agreed to ban the production, import and export of small arms for a three-year trial period. In Mali former combatants in the north of the country have traded their arms for government investments in social services.

The Guardian: UK/Export Credits Guarantee Department (ECGD): Front page coverage of the battle between Whitehall departments over whether human rights and environmental standards should play any part in deciding whether the government through ECGD should underwrite billions of pounds of exports world-wide. Four departments are at the centre of the battle. The ministry of defence and the DTI are on one side, recommending fewer restrictions and the department of environment, transport and the regions and Clare Short's department of international development are on the other. The foreign office appears more guarded in its support of an ethical policy. Guardian leader calls for tighter control of ECGD spending and for the ECGD to be brought into line with this government's efforts on debt and international development. ECGD links with the DTI should be cut and the awesome task of dismantling Britain's role as one of the biggest arms exporters in the world begun. Development/UK: Clare Short, the international development secretary, will announce plans today for a wide-ranging autumn white paper on managing globalisation as the centre-piece of a government strategy to ensure that the world's poor benefit from the economic changes.

FT: Indonesia: Indonesia's most powerful army officer, General Wiranto, is to retire from the military, it was reported yesterday. Observers believe a power struggle has been going on between Mr Wahid and General Wiranto, once seen as a reformist commander of the armed forces but now threatened with possible trial for crimes against humanity in East Timor. Cambodia: A Cambodian provincial governor and a score of senior officials involved in illegal logging are to be arrested and prosecuted, Hun Sen, the prime minister said yesterday. Global finance: Economist Martin Wolf argues that the greatest challenge of the 21^st Century will be to narrow the income disparity between rich and poor nations. He sees the answer in a wisely managed liberal world economy.

Tuesday 25th January 2000

The following letter from Ann Pettifor appeared in today's International Herald Tribune.

Africa's Debt to the USRegarding "Its Time to Be Candid About Africa's Leaders" Opinion, Jan. 18) by Bill Berkeley:
The writer says that President Bill Clinton "and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright have forthrightly acknowledged America's Cold War complicity with tyrants and warlords across Africa". Mr Clinton should do more than acknowledge complicity, he should make amends for the lasting consequences of this complicity.
The United States financed tyrants and warlords with massive loans. Now that the tyrants are gone, the men., women and children of Africa carry the burden of the debt. Angola's debt to the United States is $35 million and Liberia's is $335 million. Somalia owes $431 million and Sudan an astonishing $1.2 billion.
Liberia's current annual budget is just over $60 million. This is expected to pay for law enforcement, a  judicial system, a  civil service, infrastructure as well as health, education, clean water and sanitation. But this budget is only a fifth of the $335 million owed to the United States. This debt is due to money squandered on a Cold war fought by the poor in defense of the rich.
Today, women and children suffer the ravages of civil war, hunger and disease, brought on in part by the Cold war and its legacy of massive debts. The United States refuses to write off these debts unless these victims of the Cold War agree to further US intervention, through the International Monetary Fund, whose prescriptions contradict the objectives of its poverty reduction and growth programs. These programs, as Africa's negative per capita growth figures of the last decade demonstrate, have not helped the people of Africa recover.
In this year of Jubilee, the United States should wipe the slate clean. Admitting complicity, it should do so graciously, without protracted and life-denying IMF conditions.
The writer is director of Jubilee 2000 UK, an advocacy movement comprising religious groups, development organisations and artists that is leading a campaign for debt relief.

IHT: Congo (Kinshasa)/UN: Speaking before an array of African leaders, the president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Laurent Kabila, said on Monday that he would co-operate with international efforts to end a civil war in his country that involves troops from more than half a dozen countries. Madeleine Albright, the US Secretary of State, said that the most disturbing aspect of the conflict has been the horrific abuse of fundamental human rights by all sides. Africa: Wilfred Mlay of World Vision International calls on the world leaders meeting at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting that in Davos, Switzerland, this week to focus on the plight of Africa, which is burdened by conflict, disease, poverty and debt. He says that debt write-off should be treated as an investment. African countries are reeling under debt burdens which can never be repaid. Servicing international debt exceeds spending on education in 30 African countries. Debt write-off should be accomplished in a way that ensures that the newly available funds are used to address critical needs. Non-governmental organisations which work at the community level can play a key advocacy role in ensuring that civil society has a voice in how debt forgiveness can benefit the poorest. Indonesia/Environment: Satellite imagery of the islands Kalimantan, Sulawesi and Sumatra show that more than 17 million hectares of forest have been destroyed in 12 years. This represents a quarter of the total forest cover of Indonesia that existed in 1985.

The Guardian: France/Germany: A German parliamentary inquiry yesterday broadened its scope to investigate a report that France's late former president Francois Mitterrand used £10 million of taxpayers' money to get his friend and ally Helmut Kohl re-elected as chancellor. The decision came as Germany's Christian Democrat Union (CDU) revealed that the total amount of untraceable funds on its books had reached almost DM 29 million (£9 million). Health: Guardian leader criticises the UK government for allowing social services departments to recruit social workers from South Africa. Africa is suffering grievously from the emigration of expensively-trained medical staff. There are more Sierra Leone doctors in a single American city, Chicago, than in the entire African state.

The Times: Germany: Times leader says that everyday the CDU party sinks deeper in disgrace.

FT: Sudan: President Omar el-Bashir of Sudan yesterday consolidated his grip on power, replacing the cabinet, all state governors and his senior advisers. This move marks the final isolation of Hassan Tourabi, the ruling party's Islamist ideologue. UK: The government's budget surplus will hit £10 billion in the current financial year, according to a report published by Oxford Economic Forecasting. Global finance: (yesterday's paper) G7 governments agreed this weekend to a comprehensive review of financing procedures used by the IMF and to examine the roles of the World Bank and regional development banks. The decision

represents agreement to consider at least some of the proposals for the IMF being urged by US Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, who has called for the IMF to focus more narrowly on providing emergency support for countries in crisis and to reduce significantly its long-term financing role in developing economies. The agreement to look at the role of the multilateral development banks "in the context of changing global conditions" suggests that the reform agenda is wider than previously indicated. International moves come amid expectations of more criticism of the institutions from the US Congress.

Monday 24th January 2000

The Guardian: France/G-7: Pressure is growing on Japan to relieve third world debt in the wake of France's weekend announcement that it will join Britain and the US in writing off 100 per cent of the money it is owed by the world's poorest countries. The move, which will be worth about FF 7 billion (£650 million), was announced by finance minister Christian Sautter after the G-7 meeting in Tokyo on Saturday. Gordon Brown, the UK Chancellor, congratulated his French counterpart and expressed his hope that it would set a precedent for other nations. His remarks appear to reference Japan, which has been dragging its heels on full debt relief.

IHT: Ecuador: The Vice President of Ecuador has been elevated to the presidency after a three-man junta toppled the president but then stepped down under pressure from the USA and other foreign powers. In a fast-moving crisis triggered by this small South American country's severe economic troubles, Vice President Gustavo Noboa took power late Saturday with support from the head of the armed forces and Congress. The previous President, Jamil Mahuad, was overthrown on Friday after Indian protesters supported by some junior officers in the armed forces stormed the Congress building.

FT: Germany/France: The leaders of Germany's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) meet in emergency session last night as their embattled party was rocked with new allegations it received up to DM 30 million in illegal funding from France's Elf energy group. German and French television channels claimed that Francois Mitterrand, the late French president, had used the oil company to channel money to the CDU in the early 1990s. UN/Children: A new UN pact to ban the use of children in war was agreed yesterday by 70 countries after six years of negotiations. Zimbabwe/UK: FT leader criticises the British government over the decision to supply arms parts to Zimbabwe, describing it as a grave misjudgment. The paper says that the UK has lost credibility in Africa as a result.

The Independent: Congo (Kinshasa): Leaders of African nations at war in the Democratic Republic of Congo are gathering today in New York to attend a special session of the UN Security Council aimed a bringing an end to the conflict.