Rich nations snub pleas of the poor

THE LEADERS of the rich nations yesterday turned a deaf ear to the pleas of the world's poor for more effective debt relief. Despite warm words at the end of the Group of Eight summit in Birmingham, the meeting offered no significant improvement in the very limited measures at present in place.

The prime ministers and presidents of the major powers promised to support a "speedy and determined" extension of debt relief to more countries and announced an offer of "interim" relief.

The words came not in a joint communique, as the G8 has issued on other issues, but in a statement issued by the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair. It was interpreted as evidence of a split within the G8 leaders whom the British failed to persuade to more radical measures.

The statement said: "We encourage all eligible countries to take the policy measures needed to embark on the process as soon as possible." It added: "We will work with the international institutions and other creditors to ensure that when they qualify, countries get the relief they need, including interim debt relief measures whenever necessary."

This was largely a reiteration of the existing Highly Indebted Poor Countries' Initiative (HIPC). It did nothing to address the urgency of poor countries, particularly in Africa, making major cuts in health and education budgets - to free money to pay debts - at a time when child mortality, malnutrition and illiteracy is soaring throughout the continent.

After a weekend in which some 60,000 demonstrators ringed the G8 conference centre calling for urgent action on debt, aid agencies expressed grave disappointment at the lack of new measures. While British officials insisted that the proposals represented a breakthrough in advancing debt onto the international agenda, debt campaigners branded the summit's response as inadequate, unworkable and unfair.

Third World debt was one of four main topics discussed at a less formal, more focused summit designed to recapture the spirit of the early summits in the Seventies. While jobs and training, transnational crime and world economic growth were also on the agenda, debt was the subject that had aroused most popular interest in Britain.

Tens of thousands of people - from churches, aid agencies and community groups - came out on to the streets of Birmingham on Saturday under the banner of the Jubilee 2000 coalition to call for a one-off cancellation of poor countries' debt for the millennium. A spokesman for Jubilee 2000 said that the G8 leaders had promised less than Gordon Brown, the Chancellor, had proposed in his Mauritius mandate under which three-quarters of the world's poorest countries would qualify for debt relief by 2000.

Campaigners had hoped for four things. They wanted:

a reduction in the number of years (six) that poor countries have to follow a strict IMF economic reform programme before they qualify for HIPC debt relief;

war-torn countries like Rwanda to be exempt from the six-year-rule;

more relief to be made available to the few who do qualify - Mozambique HIPC has reduced debt by just 27 pence per Mozambican a year;

and countries to be allowed to set aside money for health and education before calculations on debt payments.

None of this has been done, though Mr Blair said that special arrangements for countries that had suffered war or civil strife were in prospect and that G8 members will "enhance" mutual co-operation on infectious and parasitic diseases, including malaria and Aids.

Members of the US team expressed satisfaction with the need for "sound" reforms in recipient countries - an emphasis which aid agencies interpreted as evidence that harsh conditionality would continue.

Ed Mayo, Jubilee 2000's chairman, one of the debt campaigners who met Mr Blair after Saturday's six-mile-long human chain rally, said the Prime Minister's warm words then had not been matched by the final statement. "There's a sense of deep disappointment," he said.