(September 28, 2004) As the U.S. Senate hearing on corruption in multilateral development banks continued this week, chair Senator Richard Lugar drew attention to the Lesotho corruption trials and the difficulties poor countries face when they try to prosecute corruption.
Global finance chiefs seek to forge Iraq debt deal
(September 27, 2004) Finance chiefs from leading industrialised countries must bridge a transatlantic rift over how much of Iraq’s foreign debt to write-off if they are to make progress towards a deal.
Congress probing U.N. Oil-for Food program
(September 27, 2004) U.S. congressional investigators are trying to determine whether lax monitoring at a French bank that held more than $60 billion for the U.N. oil-for-food program facilitated illicit business deals by the former Iraqi government.
China leaders warn of corruption
(September 27, 2004) In an unusually blunt message, China’s Communist Party has warned its members that corruption and incompetence could threaten its hold on power.
Jubilee USA network lukewarm to British debt cancellation plan
(September 27, 2004) “We laud Brown to his commitment to 100% debt cancellation. But the truth is his call to finance that cancellation through G7 government appropriations threatens to scuttle a deal on debt for October 1st.”
Stop the Hutiaoxia dam!
(September 26, 2004) Endorsed by Green Earth Volunteers, Institute of Environment and Development, Green Island, Global Village of Beijing, Friends of Nature, Partnership for Community Development, Global Environment Institute, Alashan SEE Ecology Association and Beijing Brooks Education Centre.
Acres and acres of graft
(September 24, 2004) A Canadian firm is blacklisted abroad for bribery, yet no penalties from Ottawa. What’s wrong here?
Transparent arbitration should be used to handle Iraq’s odious debts
(September 24, 2004) Most debts created by former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein were used to oppress the Iraqi people or were otherwise not used in the public interest. Such debt should qualify as “odious” according to international legal doctrine on the matter. Debt arbitration, which relies on the rule of law and a public judicial process, should be used to determine how much of the more than $120 billion in claims creditors currently hold against Iraq are legally enforceable, a new Cato Institute study contends.
UNCC awards $377m reparations
(September 23, 2004) The Governing Council of the United Nations Compensation Commission (UNCC) has awarded a further $377 million in reparations against Iraq, reports debt campaigner Jubilee Iraq. The 53rd session of the commission brought Iraq’s reparations total to approximately $48.9 billion, of which $30.3 billion remains unpaid. Jubilee Iraq argues that while some of the reparations represent genuine damages, the Iraqi people should not have to pay for crimes committed by Saddam Hussein’s regime. Jubilee Iraq charges that the "reparations, like the odious debt, threaten not just the Iraqi people but the whole region.
Swiss government to release N66.5b Abacha loot
(September 22, 2004) After verifications, the Swiss government has agreed to release to Nigeria about N66.5 billion ($500 million) looted from Nigeria by the government of the late Gen. Sani Abacha.
Havens that have become a tax on the world’s poor
(September 22, 2004) London, England: Billions of pounds, enough to pay for the entire primary health and education needs of the world’s developing countries, are being siphoned off through offshore companies and tax havens, according to a new group called Tax Justice Network.
Pinochet fortune ‘at $23m’
(September 22, 2004) A probe by Chile’s top prosecutor into secret accounts kept by General Augusto Pinochet at a US bank has disclosed that the former dictator accumulated a fortune of nearly $US16 million ($22.9 million), according to a report published today.
Canada eases African debt load ahead of UN speech
(September 22, 2004) Hours before Prime Minister Paul Martin is expected to make Africa a central part of his first address to the United Nations, his government announced that it has cancelled the debts owed Canada by three more African countries.
Richest nations may drop debt of 33 poorest
(September 22, 2004) The world’s wealthiest governments will decide on Oct. 1 whether to back a proposal by Britain and the United States to write off tens of billions of dollars in debt owed by 33 of the world’s poorest nations to international financial institutions.
Monumental plunder (editorial)
(September 21, 2004) It is clear that the Marcos dictatorship plundered and destroyed the Filipino economy. Justice demands that the government continue its efforts to recover every peso of the money stolen by the Marcoses from the people.
Patricia Adams
Dai Qing
Fan Xiao
Lawrence Solomon
Mu Lan
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