VIGIL ON INTERNATIONAL DEBT ON THE EVE OF THE G-7 SUMMIT

Our vigil is in remembrance of the victims of tragically flawed international policies on debt. We are calling for immediate and comprehensive debt cancellation for impoverished countries.

We are here at the Treasury Department today because the G-7 Summit is about to commence in Okinawa, Japan. The G-7 is the body with the most influence over international debt policy, and the heads of state gathered in Okinawa are expected to discuss the matter in some detail. Treasury is the lead U.S. agency on international debt and other economic policies discussed by the G-7.

This vigil is one of dozens of coordinated events worldwide focusing on debt in advance of the G-7 Summit.

The United Nations Childrenâs Fund (UNICEF) estimates that 19,000 children die every day in indebted countries. The agency cites debt and economic austerity programs imposed on indebted countries as major culprits for this ongoing human catastrophe.

Njoki Njoroge Njehu, a Kenyan national who directs the 50 Years Is Enough Network, notes: "That is over 7.5 million children dead since the G-7âs June 1999 meeting in Cologne, Germany. The foot- dragging continues to cost lives; this is a crisis of epic proportions and every day of inaction contributes to the genocide. The speeches, the broken promises, the measured proposals, even as the enormity of the crisis is acknowledged and decried, and then lack of action: it does not make sense. It makes one wonder if thereâs a decision that these are disposable people, disposable lives."

The vigil focuses on the urgent need for comprehensive and immediate debt cancellation in sub-Saharan Africa, something the G-7 heads of government have the power to bring about.  Several speakers will address the havoc wreaked by the austerity programs of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, especially in Africa.  Those programs are imposed on severely indebted countries, causing many to see debt as an instrument for coercing governments into accepting policies friendly to "free trade" and multinational corporations.  The same policies prove devastating for the majority of people in those countries, who suffer layoffs, higher prices, reduced access to credit, and cuts in health, education, housing, and food subsidies. 

At the G-7 Summit in Cologne, Germany, an "enhanced" version of the World Bank and IMF debt relief intiative was formulated.  Despite the promise of more rapid action made then, only 3 countries have actually received debt relief since the announcement of the original version of the program, the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative (HIPC), in 1996. The amount of debt actually eliminated for countries under HIPC has been criticized by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan as insufficient to allow them to escape endemic poverty.

The HIPC program has also been criticized for requiring that beneficiary countries commit to further IMF/World Bank austerity programs.

Dennis Brutus, the renowned South African poet, anti-apartheid activist, and Honorary President of Jubilee 2000 Afrika reminds us: "While officials of the international financial institutions and the worldâs wealthiest countries congratulate themselves on their generosity, thousands of Africans are dying every day and thousands more are denied the most basic necessities of life because of the G-7âs debt policies. This tragedy has got to stop."

For more information: 50 Years Is Enough Network - 202/IMF-BANK www.50years.org - wb50years@igc.org