Patrick Wintour and Ashley Seager
The Guardian (UK)
March 12, 2005

The prime minister, Tony Blair, said yesterday that Britain would change its banking laws to speed up the return of funds stolen from Africa by corrupt leaders.

At the launch of the report of the Commission for Africa, he acknowledged that it required Britain to go further in combating corruption and money laundering.

The report recommends that banks be obliged to inform African countries when they see suspicious transactions, as well as to freeze and confiscate assets without needing a criminal conviction.

Asked if Britain needed to go further, Mr Blair said: “Yes. We will do what is necessary from our perspective and we have got to get it done.” The Department for International Development said it was amending the serious and organised crime bill to ensure that Britain ratified the UN convention against corruption, so becoming the first G8 nation to do so.

The convention can come into force only if 30 nations ratify it. So far, 19 have done so.

Assets can be returned now under British law, but the convention, subject to the right legal procedures, would require assets to be returned.

Mr Blair also endorsed angry remarks from Bob Geldof, founder of the commission, by attacking corrupt and undemocratic African leaders.

Mr Geldof had called for the Ugandan president, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, to stand down at the end of his term of office and called Robert Mugabe, the president of Zimbabwe, a thug.

British ministers have been struck by how a new generation of African leaders is determined to speak out against corruption by their fellow leaders.

But Britain is anxious that the corruption issue does not dominate the G8 agenda for fear it should look as if the west is blaming the victim.

Mr Blair said Africa represented the fundamental moral challenge of our generation.

He said: “There can be no excuse, no defence, no justification for the plight of millions of our fellow beings in Africa today.

“There should be nothing that stands in our way of changing it. Africa can change for the better and the blisteringly frank report shows how.

“It should be an obscenity that haunts our daily thoughts that 4 million people will die in Africa before their fifth birthday.”

It was Africa’s responsibility to sort out its governance, but the west needed to provide more aid, he said.

“When I think of Africa, I fear my own conscience and I fear the judgment of future generations, when history properly calculates the gravity of the suffering around us. How could wealthy people so aware of such suffering, so capable of acting, simply turn away and busy themselves with other things?”

The chancellor, Gordon Brown, said the world had to recognise that, without an early injection of funds, the promise to halve poverty would not be met as planned in 2015, but in 2150.

“Africans are praised for the virtues of patience, but 150 years is too long to wait for justice. So the question that has to be asked today is, If not now, when? If not us, who?”

He, too, called for an antidote to corruption, though some observers questioned whether the report did enough to set out how private sector investment would expand.

“Unless we deliver, it’ll just be another report,” said Myles Wickstead, director of the commission.

Most charities and non-government organisations welcomed the quality and breadth of the report’s analysis and agreed with its central conclusion that lots of money was needed quickly. But they also said the British government needed to get its own house in order.

“Taken together, the findings of the commission would offer real hope if they were acted on by the world’s richest countries,” said George Gelber, head of policy at the charity Cafod.

“The report increases the pressure on the G8 countries to commit more money and introduce greater reform on trade if they are to live up to their promises on tackling poverty in Africa.”

Christian Aid said the report challenged all countries in the rich world and Africa, but also Mr Blair and Mr Brown.

“To make this a reality, the rule books on trade, aid and debt must be rewritten – including some sweeping changes to current UK government policy,” said Charles Abugre, the charity’s head of policy.

He said the UK supported trade liberalisation by African countries, whereas the report argued that it could be damaging for poorer countries.

John Hilary, policy director at War on Want, went further: “The commission has slammed the UK government’s harmful policies towards some of the world’s poorest countries. The UK’s policies of trade liberalisation and privatisation are revealed as part of the problem facing Africa, while reluctance to crack down on corporate corruption is highlighted as another key failing.

“Tony Blair must now respond with a thorough overhaul of UK policies towards Africa across the full range of issues identified by the commission,”

Save the Children said it was happy overall with the report’s strong recommendations that international institutions and rich countries be prevented from imposing policies on poor countries that harm children.

The TUC said it was pleased that its lobbying had succeeded in getting strong rights for workers written into the report.