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US Calls for Reduction of Iraq's 'Illegitimate' Debt
'Certainly the people of Iraq shouldn't be saddled with those debts incurred
through the regime of the dictator who's now gone' (John Snow, US Treasury
Secretary, quoted in Financial Times April 11th).
The cancellation of illegitimate debt - based on loans made to dictators
who
used to money to repress people rather than for their benefit - has been
a major
concern of debt campaigners over recent years. It has been at the top
of the
agenda of Jubilee South - a network of debt campaigns across the South
of the
globe - and has been the theme of debt activities organised by them at
the
World Social forum in Porto Alegre for the past two years.
Creditors, however, have refused to accept the illegitimacy of some of
their
lending. Does this statement mark a breakthrough? Will the US make the
same
call in relation to debt owed by the Philippines, the Democratic Republic
of the
Congo, Argentina...?
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