why the debt should be cancelled : Illegitimate debt

Don’t Owe, Shouldn’t Pay: Odious Debt, Illegitimate Debt, Unsustainable Debt – Who Owes Whom?

Africa's foreign debts were mostly incurred by unrepresentative and despotic regimes during the Cold War years. With the complicity of creditors, these loans were used for purposes contrary to the interests of African nations. This is known as odious debt. The Bush Administration has declared Iraq’s $120 billion foreign debt to be odious by this definition and is aggressively promoting its cancellation. The refusal to acknowledge the odious nature of Africa’s debts reveals a harsh double standard based on geopolitics and opposed to justice.

Many loans that were made for development projects or contracted by legitimate governments should also be considered illegitimate in nature because the projects were poorly conceived, imposed by creditors, and benefited foreign or corporate interests over the interests of African people. Many loans were spent on projects and economic reforms that were harmful to people, communities and the environment. In other cases the economic conditions of loan agreements further impoverished the recipient nations.

Africa’s debt is not only odious and illegitimate; it is also unsustainable and the single biggest obstacle to the continent's development. Servicing these debts diverts money directly from spending on health care, education and other important social needs. It also retards economic growth and discourages investment in African economies.

Finally, many Africans question the notion of an African “debt” to the U.S. and European countries and the financial institutions they control after centuries of exploitation. They ask, “Who really owes whom?” For Africa’s people, debt payments are simply a continuation of the continent’s historic role of financing the development of northern countries at the expense of the lives of thousands of African children who die each day from easily preventable malnutrition and diseases. African civil society organizations are increasingly moving beyond demands for debt cancellation to demands for their own governments to repudiate foreign debts and demands for reparations from the wealthy minority of countries that historically enriched themselves through the impoverishment of Africa and Africans. Africa Action supports this movement.

Question: Is oil more important than life blood of a people?

Also read: Jubilee South’s Response to the G8 Debt Proposal:
Justice Demands Unconditional and Total Debt Cancellation for All South Countries!
click here PDF

Useful Websites:
www.africaaction.org/newsroom
www.jubileeplus.org
www.odiousdebts.org