(June 23, 2006)”As Indonesia struggles to rebuild after this weekend’s devastating earthquake – striking less than two years after the 2004 tsunami – world leaders must move quickly to cancel Indonesia’s onerous debt burden. While donors pledge emergency assistance in the form of more loans to Indonesia, the country would be better served through full debt cancellation.”
Opening statement for hearing on UN Convention Against Corruption
(June 21, 2006) The US administration has sent the UN Convention Against Corruption to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for Senate advice and consent. A hearing chaired by Dick Lugar is now underway and the treaty is expected to be discharged.
Free the Third World of export credit agencies
(June 21, 2006) The evidence of boondoggles made possible by Export Credit Agency (ECA) support – the Three Gorges dam, the Norwegian shipping deal to Ecuador, the Manantali dam in the Senegal River basin, the Bataan nuclear power station in the Philippines, pulp and paper mills to Indonesia, the OK Tedi mine in Papua New Guinea, military exports to Iraq – is extensive and well documented.
Export credit debt prevention
(June 20, 2006) Three steps to protecting future generations from export credit agencies.
Evaluation echoes civil society critique of World Bank-IMF debt relief efforts
(June 19, 2006) Countries in the midst of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative have seen a worsening of their debt and fiscal management, claims a new World Bank evaluation; other countries went back into debt trouble after completing the programme.
Norwegians push for examination of illegitimate debt
(June 19, 2006) Norway has reportedly established a $20,000 fund for the World Bank to undertake a study of odious and illegitimate debt.
Lugar begins hearing on the UN Convention Against Corruption
(June 11, 2006) The chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee Dick Lugar resided over the first hearing on the UN Convention Against Corruption last month which had been sent by the US Administration for Senate advice and consent.
Let’s launch an enquiry into the debt! A manual on how to organise audits on Third World debts
(June 10, 2006) A new guide to launching debt audits hopes to ‘untangle the web of debt.’ the Third World debt can seem like a real gold mine, for the people living in the Third World, it feels more like a straight jacket," reads the promotional material for a new how-to guide on auditing Third World debts.
Applying the odious debts doctrine while preserving legitimate lending
(June 10, 2006) Abstract: Odious debts are debts incurred by the government of a nation without either popular consent or a legitimate public purpose. While there is some debate within academic circles as to whether the successor government to a regime which incurred odious debts has the right to repudiate repayment, in the real world this is currently not an option granted legitimacy either by global capital markets or the legal systems of creditor states.
Faiths call for cancellation of foreign debt
(June 9, 2006) Religious leaders say Kenya should be given a debt write-off or the nation should stop repaying them.
Civil Society Statement on the Paris Club at 50: illegitimate and unsustainable
(June 6, 2006) As it is today, the Paris Club does not have any legitimacy. Civil society organizations from the South and the North demand a radical change of the current state of affairs in international debt management.
Attorney general sued for dropping Suharto case
(June 6, 2006) Three private groups of lawyers and activists have filed a suit against the Indonesian attorney general’s office for dropping a long-running corruption case against ailing former dictator Suharto.
Regime change?
(June 5, 2006) Governmental organizations never get the ax for operating losses. They don’t even die in their sleep. They claim new purposes for themselves and flourish. Just look at the IMF.
Beware the big, bland wolf
(June 5, 2006) The first year of Paul Wolfowitz at the World Bank.
Group cautions against debt payment
(June 4, 2006) A group, African Network for Environment and Economic Justice (ANE-EJ), has called on the National Assembly to reject a proposal sent by President Olusegun Obasanjo to settle London Club debt at the expense of key development challenges in Nigeria.
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