Protesters: U.S. Call on Iraq Debt Hypocritical; Warn Against Imposing "Free Trade" Agenda on Iraq

50 Years listserv
Apr 11, 2003
by 50 Years Is Enough Network / ACERCA

50 Years Is Enough: U.S. Network for Global Economic Justice
ACERCA: Action for Community & Ecology in the Regions of Central America

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 11, 2003

Protesters: U.S. Call on Iraq Debt Hypocritical
Warn Against Imposing “Free Trade” Agenda on Iraq

Citing Example of Latin America, Sunday Protests Target
IMF/World Bank Meetings & Inter-American Development Bank

Debt cancellation and anti-IMF/World Bank campaigners today said the calls
by Treasury Secretary John Snow and Assistant Secretary of Defense Paul
Wolfowitz for the cancellation of debts accumulated by Saddam Hussein’s
government are both reasonable and hypocritical.

“The people of Iraq certainly should not be forced to pay illegitimate debts that
benefitted only a corrupt few,” said Njoki Njoroge Njehu, Director of the 50
Years Is Enough Network. “The cruel joke is that this Administration, like
previous ones, has steadfastly opposed cancellation of similar debts incurred
by Mobutu in Zaire/Congo, the apartheid government in South Africa, and
dozens of other undemocratic, corrupt, and repressive regimes. It seems that
after the U.S. prosecutes a nearly-unilateral war to take over a devastated,
indebted country, it suddenly sees the logic of eliminating illegitimate debts.
Millions in Africa have died while the U.S. and its friends at the IMF and World
Bank have denied that logic. Funny how facing the responsibility of
governing such a country can change minds so quickly.”

The news that the Bush Administration is also calling for the World Bank to
assume a major role in rebuilding Iraq has, meanwhile, prodded activists in
Washington, DC for the spring meetings of the Bank and the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) to warn that those institutions are not the solution, but in
fact exacerbate problems of poverty, environmental devastation, and
international conflict.

“For more than two decades, the International Monetary Fund and the World
Bank have imposed damaging economic austerity programs emphasizing
“free trade” and private profit over basic human rights on indebted and
impoverished countries,” said Demba Dembele of the Forum for African
Alternatives in Senegal. “Now, as countries emerge from conflict -- Bosnia,
East Timor, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, and now Iraq -- they are forced into the
same economic system that has created poverty and suffering across Africa
and much of Latin America, the Caribbean, and Asia. People in country after
country are clear that they want new economic and development approaches,
not more of the same.”

Latin America is the focus of this weekend’s protests. It was the first region to
be targeted by the institutions’ macroeconomic programs, with the debt crisis
of the early 1980s spurring the introduction of “structural adjustment
programs” in Mexico, Argentina, and Brazil. Today, after following IMF/World
Bank “advice” for 20 years, large-scale public resistance to the economic
policies has erupted in Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Argentina, El Salvador, Brazil,
and Paraguay.

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) plays a significant role in
reinforcing IMF/World Bank policies in the region, and protesters will be
stoppingn there on the way to the IMF/World Bank headquarters. “We want to
make sure the IDB’s role is fully exposed,” said Brendan O’Neill of ACERCA.
“Through projects like the ‘Plan Puebla Panama’ it is remaking the region’s
map for the sake of corporate profit.” Soledad Quintanilla, a member of
CESTA/Friends of the Earth El Salvador, is in Washington to “expose how
‘free trade’ puts both humans and the environment at enormous risk. With
CESTA, she is campaigning to halt construction of three dams in El Salvador
that are part of the Plan Puebla Panama.

INFORMATION ON PROTESTS & LATIN AMERICA SOLIDARITY
CONFERENCE

*Friday April 11: Opening of Latin America Solidarity Coalition (LASC)
conference.
7:30 pm: St. Aloysius Church, 19 I St., N.W. (at North Capitol St., 3 blocks
north of Union
Station)

*Saturday, April 12: LASC conference continues
9:30am - 12:45pm & 5:30 pm - 9:00 pm: St. Aloysius Church, 19 I St., N.W.
(at North Capitol St.; 3 blocks north of Union Station). For program, see
http://www.lasolidarity.org/events/A2003/workshops.htm. The 50 Years Is
Enough Network is sponsoring a workshop at 11:15 am, on the IMF.

*Sunday, April 13: Global Justice Rally, co-sponsored by Latin America
Solidarity Coalition and the Mobilization for Global Justice. Followed by
march to IMF/World Bank. All times approximate.
11 am: Malcolm X/Meridian Hill Park - 16th & Euclid Street, NW - Rally
1 pm: March steps off, Tour of Shame, with several stops; www.50years.org
3 pm: March reaches Inter-American Development Bank (13th & New York
Ave., N.W.)
4 pm: March reaches the IMF headquarters, 700 19th Street, N.W., site of the
institutions’
spring meetings, which should be ending at about that time. Closing rally
until about
5 pm.

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