Outrage as G8 Ends with No Firm Debt Commitment

Jun 10, 2004

Jubilee USA Network * 50 Years is Enough Network

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - June 10, 2004, 4:00 PM Eastern

CONTACT: Marie Clarke, Jubilee USA, c: 202-255-7849 / Neil Watkins, c:
202-421-1023
Njoki Njehu, 50 Years Is Enough Network, c: 202-746-4318
Online Press Room -- www.jubileeusa.org / www.50years.org

US Movement for Debt Cancellation Outraged by G-8 Failure on Debt

Failure to Act on 100% Debt Cancellation a Tragedy, Will Cost Lives

SAVANNAH, Ga. - Jubilee USA Network and the 50 Years Is Enough
Network expressed disappointment this afternoon at the failure of the G-8
leaders to take decisive action by committing to support 100% multilateral
debt cancellation for impoverished nations.

Over the past several days press reports had indicated that UK Prime
Minister Tony Blair had put forth a proposal for 100% debt cancellation for
poor countries. This afternoon, however, the leaders of the Group of Eight
wealthy nations instead announced a meager 2-year extension of the Heavily
Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative instead of a definitive commitment
to full cancellation.

"At this critical moment, when every minute another African child dies of
AIDS, the global community needs 100% cancellation of multilateral debt
without harmful conditions," said Marie Clarke, National Coordinator of the
Jubilee USA Network. "By failing to seize the opportunity, the G-8 has once
again chosen baby steps over bold action."

HIPC, even by IMF and World Bank standards, has failed to provide an exit
from the debt crisis. After eight years of the HIPC program, two things are
clear: when countries have more access to their own resources they use them
well, but HIPC has been too little relief, too slow, for too few countries
and with too many conditions.

"Indebted countries need 100% debt cancellation without deadly conditions
on the occasion of the IMF and World Bank’s 60th Anniversary year," said
Njoki Njehu, Director of the 50 Years is Enough Network. "Cancellation of
impoverished country debt by the IMF and World Bank must be financed
through their own resources."

Bi-partisan legislation calling for the IMF to cancel 100% of the debts of
50 nations without harmful conditions has been introduced in the U.S. House
of Representatives. The JUBILEE Act, HR 4511, will legislate what the G-8
has failed to propose.

Jubilee USA Network, the 50 Years Is Enough Network, and the broader debt
cancellation movement will turn up the heat on global leaders and the
multilateral creditors in the coming months. "President Bush and the G-8
might have found it hot in Georgia in June, but we will turn up the heat
even more in this election year on the issue of debt cancellation. We will
be bringing our calls for 100% cancellation to pulpits throughout the
country, to the halls of Congress with the JUBILEE Act, and to the streets,"
said Clarke.

Earlier this week, Jubilee USA Network released a letter signed by more than
250 religious leaders, including Jesse Jackson and leaders of Protestant,
Catholic, and Jewish denominations calling for 100% cancellation of the
debts of impoverished nations without harmful conditions in light of the
AIDS crisis.

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