(February 8, 2004) Mired in controversy for a decade, the Nam Theun 2 hydroelectric project is likely to get the green light from the World Bank after its executive directors from Washington visit the dam site in Laos this weekend for their final appraisal of the plant.
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Reducing Iraq’s foreign debt
(February 6, 2004) How and when Argentina’s debt mess gets cleared up will have much more of an impact on the international financial system than how and when Iraq’s debt mess gets fixed. So why is the G-7 giving more attention to Iraq?
What Privy Council said about the Chalillo dam
(February 5, 2004) Not even the most protracted and determined paper chase could have got at the true facts" about Chalillo. Lord Walker, Privy Council decision, London.
China to write-off Iraq’s debt, reopen embassy
(February 5, 2004) China on Thursday said it will write-off an undetermined amount of the debt owed by Iraq and reopen its embassy in Baghdad soon which would also help protect its interests in the multi-billion dollar reconstruction projects in the war-torn nation.
Russia hints at considerable debt reduction for Iraq
(February 5, 2004) Russia is ready to settle Iraq’s debt problem in accordance with the Paris Club rules, which may lead to a "considerable" reduction of debt for the war-ravaged country, said Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Yuri Fedotov.
Africa’s debt: who owes whom?
(February 5, 2004) Africa is center stage in the struggle for human and economic rights. It is home to the world’s gravest health crises – including the HIV/AIDS pandemic and chronic famine. Even though Africa has only 5 percent of the developing world’s income, it carries about two thirds of the debt – over $300 billion.
Banking on empire
(February 4, 2004) Iraqi ministries will now be able to borrow billions of dollars to buy much-needed equipment from overseas suppliers, but only by mortgaging the national oil revenues through a bank managed by New York-based multinational JP Morgan Chase.
Saddam’s odious debt
(February 2, 2004) Saddam accumulated around $130 billion of unpaid debt, on top of tens of billions of war reparation, and the countries and companies he owes are seeking to extract as much money as they can and use the debt as a lever to control Iraq’s economy.
Government pooh-poohs Tutu’s apartheid appeal
(February 2, 2004) “If the archbishop had sat down with the Minister of Justice (Penuell Maduna) to discuss the issue, he would have had a clearer understanding of the government’s position on the litigation in the United States.”
Apartheid claims against top firms backed by Tutu
(February 2, 2004) Mr Tutu has broken with the government over the issue South Africa’s former archbishop, Desmond Tutu, has backed compensation claims filed by apartheid victims.
Nam Theun 2 dam – Fighting corruption World Bank style
(February 1, 2004) Last year, presumably in an attempt to clean up its tarnished image, the World Bank produced a glossy brochure: “10 things you never knew about the World Bank”.
Debt be not proud
(February 1, 2004) Odious debt" left over from rotten regimes cripples the developing world.
American Friends Service Committee
(February 1, 2004) Without doubt, the Iraqi people deserve a reprieve from debt. But Africa’s predicament doubles Iraq’s many times over. In Africa today, millions have been killed, and are routinely wounded, raped and displaced from their homes and means of livelihood by war.
Debt and reparations
(February 1, 2004) In addressing Africa’s struggle for relief from its onerous external debt, advocates of global justice have raised a critical question: Who owes whom? Millions of people on the continent and throughout the world have concluded that it is the countries of the Global North that are heavily indebted to African countries for over a century of exploitation.
After Iraq, let’s forgive some other debts
(February 1, 2004) It is right that most of Iraq’s debt should be forgiven – but so, too, should the debt for new democracies forced to endure the hangovers from the self-aggrandizing binges of their autocratic predecessors.
Patricia Adams
Dai Qing
Fan Xiao
Lawrence Solomon
Mu Lan
Probe International
Lisa Peryman
Probe Media
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Probe International 