Honour debt to Ethiopia 
ANN PETTIFOR 
LAURA VARGAS 
MARIE DENNIS 
SADA DIARRA 
JUERGEN KAISER 
YOKO KITAZAWA 
HEMSING HURRYNANG
The Guardian - United Kingdom; Apr 19, 2004

Nearly five years ago, in June 1999, we mobilised millions of supporters from different continents to bring enormous pressure to bear on leaders of the US, Germany, Japan, Russia and the UK at their summit in Cologne. As a result, all these leaders agreed to provide substantial debt cancellation to 42 countries, including Ethiopia. They promised a "sustainable exit" from their debts. Today, despite their own rules and commitments, international creditors are deliberately doing nothing to fulfil this promise to Ethiopia.

Twenty years ago, Bob Geldof, at the launch of Live Aid, argued: "Doing nothing for Ethiopia would mean you were complicit in murder." Today doing nothing for Ethiopia, we argue, is once again to be "complicit in murder". Why? Because if Ethiopia is denied additional debt relief, it will no longer be regarded as "sustainable" and its government will lose $1bn in new money. Worse, the Ethiopian government will be obliged to divert $35m each year of its scarce resources to service debt repayments to much richer creditors. This money could instead be used for Aids treatment, clean water and sanitation.

We urge readers to write to the ambassadors of the US, Russia, Germany and Japan to ask them to stop "doing nothing" - and to fulfil their promise to Ethiopia to cancel $700m of debt.