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Britain to cancel debt of 41 Least Developed Countries |
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December 3, 2000
LONDON--(UNB/AP) - Britain announced Saturday that it would forgive more than 1 billion pounds (dlrs 1.43 billion) in debt from 41 of the world's poorest countries - provided they can ensure the money goes toward health care, education and alleviating poverty. Treasury chief Gordon Brown said the move would help create a "virtuous circle of debt relief, poverty reduction and sustainable economic development." Brown's office said 12 nations, including Cameroon, Honduras and Senegal, would have their debt payments written off immediately, while another eight were likely to meet the government's criteria by the end of the year. In all, 600 million pounds (dlrs 850 million) will be forgiven this year, the government said. A further 21 countries that are involved in violent conflict or have failed to meet the criteria will have their payments held in trust and returned to them once they qualify. "It is one of the tragedies of this jubilee year that so many countries in Africa are involved in wars, and of course, you have no guarantee that debt relief will not go to the weapons of war rather than poverty reduction," Brown told the British Broadcasting Corp. "What we are proposing to do yesterday is renounce our right to any benefit from these debt interest payments, to put this money aside," he added. "When these countries get their poverty reduction programs in place, we will backdate the payments to them." At a Saturday-afternoon rally in London organized by the Jubilee 2000 coalition, Brown called on other countries to follow Britain's lead. "Yesterday here in London I ask our neighbors ... to also renounce their right to any benefit from the historic debt owed by these 41 heavily indebted countries," he told activists, who included the rock star Bob Geldof. Later, demonstrators planned to light a flame in Trafalgar Square to symbolize the need to continue to press the G-7 group of wealthy industrialized nations to relieve Third World debt. Last year the world's richest countries agreed to cancel dlrs 100 billion in debt from 41 heavily indebted poor countries, but Jubilee 2000 estimates that dlrs 300 billion owed by 52 countries must be scrapped to end the debt crisis. |