[asia-apec 1410] Solidarity with Mozambique

[rcpd]

Philippine-Asia Jubilee Campaign Against the Debt (PAJCAD)
c/o the  Resource Center for People's Development (RCPD) E-mail:
rcpd at info.com.ph
and Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Parish  E-mail: "Fr. Albert Suatengco"
AS415 at info.com.ph


[PAJCAD is a coalition of churches, lay organizations, social movements and
NGOs in the Philippines working for total and unconditional cancellation of
third world debts.  It is convened by 35 Catholic and Protestant bishops
led by His Eminence Ricardo Cardinal Vidal of Cebu and several leaders of
people's organizations and NGOs in the Philippines.]
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Statement  of Solidarity to the People of Mozambique

We call for a Total and Immediate Cancellation of all Mozambique Debts!
No to World Bank-sponsored Moratorium and HIPC/PRSP Conditionalities!
 
March 13, 2000


No words can aptly express our deepest sympathies to the people of
Mozambique who continue to suffer the aftermath of the devastating floods
that hit their country these past weeks. Over a million homeless, thousands
of hectares of agricultural lands destroyed, not to mention the thousand of
lives lost that continue to increase as the days move on.

But what is more tragic for the people of Mozambique is the World Bank's
hard-line stance to simply give only a one-year moratorium on debt
payments, despite strong appeals for immediate and total debt cancellation
by the Mozambique government and people, supported by international Jubilee
campaigns and civil society organizations.

Furthermore, the World Bank, trying to appear charitable in helping the
people rise from the catastrophe, merely gives out new loans instead of
grants to Mozambique to cope with the emergency situation. 

As of 1998, Mozambique has a total debt of $8.3 billion ($4.3 billion in
bilateral debt, $2.1 billion in multilateral debt and $2 billion private
debt).  Certain creditor-governments in the North have made pledges to
cancel Mozambique's bilateral debt, with UK taking the lead to cancel $ 150
million.  

But one wonders, where this bilateral debt cancellation goes.  Will it be
another drop in the ocean of third world debts that is intended to beef up
the HIPC Trust Fund for Mozambique to make it appear that all debts remain
legitimate after the one-year World Bank moratorium is up? And as such,
will this be tied up again to implementing structural adjustment programs
renamed now as Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers as a basic requirement or
conditionality for "debt relief" under the HIPC and Cologne Initiative?
And what about the multilateral debts owed by Mozambique to the IMF and the
World Bank that remain "untouchables" as far as debt cancellation is
concerned? 

The HIPC and Cologne "debt relief" initiative is not only proven inadequate
but also immoral and self-serving for the interests of international
finance institutions (IFIs) who wanted to maintain the legitimacy of debts
already defaulted by HIPC countries for years now.  And the IFIs call it
debt cancellation when in fact it is plain and simple facelifting of their
books to ensure "sustainable debt servicing" by HIPCs based on structural
adjustments.   It is even worse because structural adjustments leave HIPCs
in a no-win situation where the countries are pulled further down into
perpetual indebtedness and underdevelopment at the mercy of global monopoly
capital. 

Mozambique's experience on HIPC is telling enough.  After passing to be
qualified for HIPC,  Mozambique is still left with annual average debt
payments of $73 million (or $ 1.4 million a week) while its annual budget
for primary health is only $20 million and a mere $32 million for primary
education. 

Initial estimates put the cost of reconstruction and relief operations at
hundreds of million of dollars. The full magnitude and long-term scars of
the flooding has yet to be ascertained.

Given this appalling situation, it is completely impossible for Mozambique
to rebuild itself unless their scarce resources are channeled into the real
needs of its people. There is simply no way they can pay these debts,
which, in the first place, have been paid a thousand times over by the
Mozambican people.  It is immoral and unjustifiable on the part of the IFIs
and creditors to continue collecting debt payments and add on its emergency
aid as new loans, even if this is collected after a year of moratorium.

The experience of Honduras and Nicaragua after Hurricane Mitch are enough
to say that unless genuine total and immediate debt cancellation is made,
no genuine reconstruction is possible at the cost of further indebtedness.
The World Bank is now recycling for Mozambique the same package it did for
Honduras and Nicaragua.   

The Philippine-Asia Jubilee Campaign Against the Debt (PAJCAD), in
solidarity with the people of Mozambique and the appeals already made by
the international community, urges the international financial institutions
and creditor countries to immediately cancel all bilateral and multilateral
debts of Mozambique with no conditions attached.  The IMF and the World
Bank must cancel all debts owed to them by Mozambique given the vast assets
and resources they have at hand and should stop from peddling around
"moratoriums" or bilateral debt cancellations as charitable acts in the
name of Jubilee and emergency aid.   And worse, putting all this in the
basket of the HIPC initiative as conditions for debt cancellation. 

In this light, PAJCAD reiterates its demand for the immediate and total
cancellation of all Third World debts, and its total objection to the HIPC
or its other namesakes such as PRGF/PRSP as a sham that completely negates
the spirit of Jubilee.

We support the Mozambican people and the Mozambique government in their
option of unilateral debt repudiation as an exercise of sovereign right as
a nation and people, should the IFIs insist on their insidious position and
refuse to heed the legitimate and moral basis of total and immediate debt
cancellation.   


Fr. Albert Suatengco
National Coordinator
Philippine-Asia Jubilee Campaign Against the Debt (PAJCAD)
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