Stop taking the money. An emergency call to the G8 as Okinawa's beaches beckon

World leaders are escaping to their summit island of Okinawa in the face of growing outrage and a call for new action to end the debt crisis.

Faced with new evidence of the failure of the initiative agreed last year in Cologne, Jubilee 2000 is calling on G8 leaders to immediately stop taking debt payments from the poorest countries of the world. This would avoid the delays and inadequacies of the Cologne deal, which is tied to the slow and discredited Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative.

Jubilee 2000 Coalition Director, Ann Pettifor, said: “We have heard all the creditors' excuses about why their Cologne deal has failed to deliver. But there is one very concrete step they can take in Okinawa. The G8, and the World Bank and IMF which they control, must stop taking debt payments from the poorest countries now – and ringfence the money to benefit the poor.

“The world's leaders know they don't need these payments. They say they want to cancel the debt. The detail of how the money is used can be worked out later. But in Okinawa they must stop taking the money from the world's poorest people.”

Jubilee 2000 is launching a Countdown to Okinawa action running from the UN Social Summit in Geneva on 23 June to the Okinawa Summit. The international targets for halving world poverty by 2015 – which will not be met without urgent debt cancellation - will be reconfirmed at the Geneva Summit. That leaves 30 days for the G8 to act.

In Cologne last year, the G8 promised $100 billion of debt cancellation. New Jubilee 2000 research shows that even if it is implemented as planned, the Cologne deal will fall well short of the $100 billion promised - and will take five years or more to be implemented. Officials insist the Cologne plan is still on course. But meanwhile, the call for full debt cancellation has gathered overwhelming support – from three important areas.

Firstly, southern countries are uniting in their anger at the failure of creditors to deliver. The G77 meeting of southern nations in Havana called for progress on debt, and the Organisation of African Unity has requested representation at the Okinawa Summit. Debt was the main agenda point when African and European leaders met in Cairo in April, and in Abuja the same month, 40 African heads of state called for debt cancellation as essential to a new programme to reduce malaria.

Secondly, voices from the heart of the established international financial system are calling ever more strongly for debt cancellation. In particular, the conservative-dominated Meltzer Commission, set up by the US Congress, recommended total cancellation of poor country debt. The commission also heavily criticised the IMF's role and called for its lending practices to be dramatically restricted.

Thirdly, leading figures in the United Nations are advocating 100 per cent debt cancellation and developing proposals for a new approach to the problem. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan called on creditors to cancel all debts, making clear the crucial link with poverty reduction: “Without a convincing programme of debt relief to start the new millennium, our objective of halving world poverty by 2015 will be only a pipe dream.” Kofi Annan's report also recommends the establishment of a “debt arbitration process to balance the interests of creditors and sovereign debtors, and introduce greater discipline into their relations”.

All these demands make the G8 look increasingly isolated as they prepare to retreat to their island hideaway. The rest of the world is waiting. The G8 can make a start if they stop taking the money from the world's poorest countries now.

On 6 July Jubilee 2000 campaigns around the world are targeting the G7 finance ministers, as they prepare for their own summit on 8 July. Find out how you can join this action and the other steps to Okinawa.