Probe International

(May 29, 2003) This is a letter to the editor written by Justin Alexander, UK Co-ordinator of Jubilee Iraq. He critizes Lex Rieffel’s argument that odious debts repudiation is impractical and introduces a plan for a debt arbitration tribunal for Iraq. 

(May 29, 2003) Much of the debt held by developing countries is "odious" — the result of loans that wealthy creditors made to tyrannical governments. It is simply inhumane for G8 countries to saddle impoverished citizens with these debts after the dictators fall.

(May 28, 2003) The U.S. will go to the weekend G8 summit urging debt relief for Iraq, saying it is merited by what it describes as Saddam Hussein’s abhorrent 23-year rule, but economists say it is creditor politics which drives relief.

(May 28, 2003) Abdul Minty, South Africa’s acting Director-General of Foreign Affairs, fears that if the U.S. administration takes the view that Iraq’s debts have to be written off there will not be much left for writing off debt for developing countries.

(May 27, 2003) The U.S. is expected to urge Iraq’s creditors to consider debt relief at the G-8 summit. U.S. officials charged with assessing Iraq’s debt position are putting accuracy ahead of speed: "It doesn’t matter when it is done, it matters how it is done."

(May 27, 2003) Members of the Group of Eight (G-8) industrial democracies have reached preliminary agreement to grant a moratorium on Iraq’s foreign debt payments through 2004, ITAR-TASS reported on May 19, citing french sources.

(May 26, 2003) "Michael Kremer and Seema Jayachandran misread history when they argue that ‘the world needs a system to determine which loans should be considered legitimate’. The world already has such a system; the Paris Club process.", says Lex Rieffel.

(May 24, 2003) Peter McPherson, assigned by the US Treasury to rebuild Iraq’s financial sector, also lamented the country’s "very substantial" need for debt relief. "The debt as it stands would be crushing to service," he said.

(May 23, 2003) Russia dropped its opposition to a UN resolution lifting sanctions on Iraq once it believed its Soviet-era debt and massive oil contracts in the country would be respected, the Russian press said Friday, May 23.

(May 23, 2003) A new Iraqi government would have the sovereign authority to make negotiations on debt relief says the State Department’s Assistant Secretary for International Organization Affairs, Kim Holmes.

(May 23, 2003) The oil industry should generate $20 bn next year. That will ease the suffering, though it’s nowhere near enough to finance a $20 bn a year rebuilding effort, plus the servicing of a $400 bn debt. Aid and debt relief will be needed.