Continue the Jubilee Struggle Against Debt and Domination Beyond the Year 2000
Posted on July 17 2000 |
Gathering in Quezon City on July 15 and 16 and representing regional networks and debt campaigns, social movements, Churches and NGOs from Indonesia, Thailand, Korea, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Fiji and the Philippines, we reiterate our common commitment and determination to pursue freedom from debt bondage for all South peoples.
The past two years has seen the amazing expression of the Jubilee spirit of justice and liberation that moved millions of people from countries of the North and the South to call for debt cancellation. It is a remarkable achievement of the international Jubilee movement that this call has commanded world attention and pressured the G7 governments and international financial institutions to put the debt issue in their agenda.
But these powerful creditors have responded with debt relief measures that give us little reason to celebrate.
We join other Jubilee movements and debt campaigns in denouncing and rejecting the enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative of the IMF and World Bank, and the G7 Debt Relief pledges.
The HIPC initiative promotes the false and ridiculous idea that only a few South countries are "deserving" of debt relief. By covering mostly only debts that these countries are no longer paying anyway, it offers no real relief. And, if promised amounts are pittances, the amounts that have actually been delivered thus far are even much smaller.
The fundamental and fatal flaw of the enhanced HIPC initiative is the requirement of compliance with structural adjustment programs and policies, now dressed up as Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs). Many of us are just too familiar with the impact of structural adjustment programs is to our economics, to our environment, to the lives of our people and the future of our children. The governments of Vietnam and Laos are certainly justified in refusing HIPC debt relief.
Furthermore, we cannot welcome pledges to cancel bilateral debt if these come with the same price of compliance with structural adjustment measures, if these follow the same framework as the HIPC.
We express our commitment to forge the Asia 1 Pacific network of jubilee South, mid to help strengthen he voice and leadership of Jubilee and debt movements from South countries in the international movement on the debt.
We urge all Jubilee and debt campaigns to continue the struggle beyond the year 2000 and campaign for total unconditional cancellation of debts of all South countries and for the repudiation of illegitimate debt beyond the year 2000. We pledge to contribute to building stronger solidarity and cooperation among debt campaigns and movements in the South as well as between the South and the North
Statement of Asia Pacific Movement on Debt and Development
Jubilee South in Asia and the Pacific
July 17, 2000 |
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