(June 25, 2005) New statistics reveal Nigeria’s past leaders bled the country of more than £220 billion during the first four decades of independence; the current administration is taking action but has a long way to go before citizens can start to prosper.
£220bn stolen by Nigeria’s corrupt rulers
(June 25, 2005) Nigeria’s past rulers stole or misused £220 billion new figures reveal – tallying almost exactly the total of western aid given to Africa in almost four decades; an amount six times the American help given to post-war Europe under the Marshall Plan.
G8 debt deal: incomplete but positive step forward
(June 23, 2005) “Debt cancellation has been touted as an ultimate act of charity, however, people’s movements in the indebted countries and their allies around the world have long pointed to the illegitimate nature of their debt burdens, saying, “Don’t Owe, Won’t Pay!”
Raising the flag on Iraq reparations
(June 23, 2005) The United Nations is being urged to stop paying billions of dollars in reparations from Iraq – one of the world’s most indebted countries – to claimants, many of them from Kuwait, one of the world’s richest nations.
Despite regime change, Iraq debts keep mounting
(June 22, 2005) International social justice groups are calling on the United Nations to stop paying out millions of dollars in Iraqi oil revenues in war reparations, claiming Iraqi citizens should not be held responsible for Saddam Hussein’s actions.
Debt relief’s bet is not on violent revolutions
(June 21, 2005) Debt relief doesn’t address Africa’s long-term fundamental needs and how to put Africa on the right track to development: What Africa needs to do is to grow out of debt. What [debt relief] does is simply stabilize the situation.
Africa: debt, aid and race
(June 20, 2005) "Much of Africa’s debt burden was not really aid in the first place, but money that the West (and the old Soviet Union) handed over to keep their African clients loyal during the Cold War, knowing full well that it would be stolen."
S.Africa ex-deputy president to face graft charges
(June 20, 2005) South Africa’s popular former Deputy President Jacob Zuma will be charged with corruption in a case which has already seen his aide sentenced to 15 years in prison, the prosecution authority announced.
West should act against bribery in Africa-Wolfowitz
(June 19, 2005) World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz said developed countries have an obligation to prevent bribery in Africa by Western firms.
Conference to review debt management by developing countries, debate issues of debt, development
(June 18, 2005) Two weeks before the Group of Eight (G-8) summit in Scotland this July, a conference focusing on the management of debt burdens, the long-term sustainability of external debt and the extent to which debt relief does or does not address development prospects in African countries will be held in Geneva from June 20 to June 24.
Shirking responsibility
(June 17, 2005) "If a despotic power incurs a debt not for the needs or in the interest of the State, but to strengthen its despotic regime, to repress the population that fights against it, etc., this debt is odious for the population of all the State." –Alexander Sack, 1927
Erasing the scar or the evidence?
(June 17, 2005) Hailed as the biggest debt settlement the world has ever seen, the recent agreement by the Group of Eight (G-8) rich nations to write off the debts of 18 of the world’s poorest countries has not managed to quell calls for debt repudiation in Africa.
Democracy not basis for World Bank funds
(June 16, 2005) Foreign financial assistance is not based on sound economic policies or genuine democratisation principles and inevitably contradicts sound nationalistic economic policies, claims an editorial by New Vision,Uganda’s largest daily.
It just won’t work
(June 12, 2005) Tony Blair’s desire to save Africa is admirable; his ideas are not.
Repudiate foreign debt, CSOs urge AU
(June 14, 2005) African civil society organisations (CSOs) have called on the African Union to be prepared to repudiate Africa’s multilateral debts, should the G8 summit scheduled for July fail to
agree on a 100 per cent debt cancellation for the continent without conditions.
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