(August 2, 1999) The multimillion-rand bribery and corruption case involving a former boss of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project could test the industrialized world’s resolve to curb the offering of bribes by international business.
Official faces charges over R12m bribes
(July 29, 1999) The Lesotho government yesterday charged its former top official at the Lesotho Highlands Water Project, Masupha Sole, with taking R12m in bribes from a dozen international companies over 10 years.
Lesotho dam’s sea of debt could drown water conservation efforts
(July 15, 1999) On June 4 the World Bank approved a loan for Mohale Dam, the second of five large dams in the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP).
UK banks pressured to return estimated 55 BLN USD looted by Nigerians
(July 1, 1999) British Jubilee 2000 is pressuring banks in the UK to freeze and help return an estimated 55 bln USD in ill-gotten gains placed abroad by Nigerians.
Patricia Adams: Speech at G-7 Summit – Public Forum on Odious Debts
(June 18, 1999) It is my very great pleasure to be here with debt campaigners from around the world who want to breathe life into this legal principle known as the doctrine of odious debts. As you know, from the introduction, I discovered the doctrine of odious debts years ago when I was writing my book about the Third World’s debt crisis. I was thrilled. Here was a principle, published in 1927 by Alexander Sack, then and still the world’s preeminent legal scholar on the treatment of public debts when governments and territories transform.
With sackings and probes, Obasanjo shakes up Nigeria
(June 16, 1999) Nigeria’s new president, Olusegun Obasanjo, has announced a series of steps to shake up the country since coming to power three weeks ago, ending more than 15 years of military rule.
A new deal for Africa: Rooting out looters: Nigeria new president aims for debt relief
(June 15, 1999) Muriel Olaiya lives more comfortably than most Nigerians. For a start, her husband has a job. It pays for the extras that make the difference between living and simply surviving in Lagos.
Nigeria’s debt: President-Elect makes pledge to Jubilee 2000 to fight corruption
(May 24, 1999) The President-Elect Olusegun Obasanjo has made an impassioned plea to the West for “substantial and immediate” relief on the country’s estimated $34 bn external debt.
It pays to think big: history favors dictators who take billions, not millions
(May 24, 1999) President Suharto opened his 1989 autobiography with memories of his simple childhood bathing in muddy canals in Java. “My roots are in the village,” he wrote. From the start of his dictatorship in 1966, Suharto carefully cultivated an image not just of humble origins but of lifelong simplicity. He claimed to be a common farm boy with common values, who rose without ambition to a position of dominance over one of the largest countries in the world, and who ruled in the best interests of the nation.
The debts of corruption
(May 10, 1999) A global movement is asking Western nations to forgive ‘odious’ debt extended to despotic regimes. The cause has merit, but opposition is building.
IOU – Take the hit
(May 1, 1999) Banks and governments knew perfectly well what they were doing when they lent money to prop up despotic regimes. Now, says Joseph Hanlon, it’s their turn to suffer the consequences.
Unforgivable: South Africa’s aparthied debts
(April 24, 1999) Debt is the new slavery. It is heartless to expect democratic third-world governments to repay loans made years ago to their nasty dictatorial predecessors.
Free Nelson Mandela
(April 20, 1999) When Nelson Mandela walked from prison seven years ago, it marked the success of one of the biggest grassroots international campaigns. Working together, we freed Nelson Mandela.
Institute against writing off apartheid debt
(March 6, 1999) The South African Institute of Race Relations says that it is misleading to label all the government’s debt as “apartheid debt” and that there is no real case for calls being made for the debt to be written off or regarded as “odious.”
World banks’ dirty SA loans
(March 3, 1999) Some of the world’s biggest banks propped up the apartheid regime in its dying days, lending it billions of dollars. Now the new government is saddled with the debts.
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