Jubilee 2000 campaigners meet donors in Malawi as protesters face teargas

Malawi Jubilee 2000 debt campaigners joined other representatives of civil society to meet with the country's major donors and creditors in Lilongwe on 14 May.

The 'Consultative Group' of western donor countries were in Malawi for negotiations with the government and agreed for the first time to meet with civil society groups as well. Many government officials and opposition politicians also attended the meeting. Jubilee 2000 campaigners in Malawi presented a paper on debt, arguing that Malawi has paid a high cost for being a 'star performer' and always fulfilling its debt service obligations. The debt issue received widespread press coverage, in particular on the question of whether Japan has put unfair pressure on Malawi not to apply for debt relief under the HIPC initiative. The Japan representative at the meeting denied this, but the Japanese government has acknowledged that it offers countries a straight choice between applying for debt relief or receiving future loans from Japan.

The presentation on debt at the meeting described the 'proposed cure' for debt as 'worse than the sickness', and 'a case of prescribing a medicine which kills the patient before any improvement is seen'. The following points were raised:

• Malawi, even though classified as one of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs), was not originally considered for the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative, because at the time the initiative was launched, Malawi's debt was mainly (over 80%) multilateral and it was repaying below or around the permissible level of 20-25% of export earnings.
• The biggest part of Malawi's bilateral debt is owed to Japan. Japan is the only creditor to operate a scheme where the money used to service debt is returned to the debtor country in the form of development assistance. If a country adopts debt relief measures this facility is stopped.
• The focus of HIPC has remained on making countries 'good debtors' rather than 'good developers' in terms of prioritising and releasing resources for urgent human development and other needs.
• A "Debt Relief Social Fund" and a "Debt fund management committee" (a tripartite steering committee made up of government, parliament, and civil society) are mechanisms that can help bring about a proper contribution by civil society to the allocation of money freed and the monitoring of their implementation. These or similar mechanisms need to be in place from the beginning.

Meanwhile, on Monday 15 May trade unionists and human rights activists tried to march to the New State House where the Consultative Group meeting was taking place. They carried placards protesting against the effects of structural adjustment programmes. The march was blocked by police and demonstrators were dispersed with teargas. However, Malawi's President Bakili Muluzi caught sight of the demonstrators and their banner messages as he arrived at the State House for the meeting.