G20 Summit: What Will The World’s Richest Countries Do?
Posted by Michelle Moquin on September 25th, 2009
I’ve been getting a lot of e-mail news sent to me in regards to Darfur lately. And now that the G20 summit has happened, the big question is, ‘What will the world’s richest countries do?’
At the summit, the experts discussed the important role of the world’s largest economies and the potential they have to support peace and political reform in Sudan. Much of the focus in the summit was what the U.S. and other G-20 nations can do to ensure proper measures are met before Khartoum’s debt can be relieved. Sudan is in a great deal of debt. (hmm…join the party, what country isn’t these days?)
Here’s a little background on Sudan’s debt:
Despite the boom period of the last decade in Sudan’s capitol Khartoum, the country’s external debt has risen from $15 billion to $34 billion – owed mostly to multi-lateral, Western, Chinese, Arab and Indian creditors. Sudan’s external public debt – the second most in Africa – has increased from $13 billion in 1989 when President Omar al-Bashir engineered the coup that brought him to power.
The Save Darfur coalition doesn’t feel that debt-relief should happen unless Sudan makes proven and significant progress toward peace in Darfur. Hmm…that request does remind me a little bit of what we hoped would’ve been said to the bailed out banks here in the U.S., when they were given relief. Spread the wealth to the citizens. Of course, what is happening here does not compare to the atrocities that happen daily in Darfur. I am by no means comparing the rape and death in Darfur to those losing their houses in the U.S. But it does make one think.
Here’s the rest of what the Save Darfur coalition has to say:
SUDAN’S DEBT IS ODIOUS DEBT
Debt is to be considered odious if a government has used these externally secured funds for personal interests or to oppress its own people. Sudan’s debt of the last twenty years has been contracted without public consent, and primarily spent – not for – but against the interests of the Sudanese people. The same regime in Khartoum though that used international loans to finance civil war in the 1990s and genocide this decade now seeks a debt-relief package from its creditors to overcome its current financial challenges.
WHY SUDAN’S DEBT SHOULD NOT BE FORGIVEN
Instead of first changing its egregious behavior in Darfur, which would make international lenders more sympathetic to debt-relief requests, the Sudanese government continues to defy the international community by refusing to acknowledge past and ongoing human rights violations in the region, blocking humanitarian assistance and the deployment of the AU/UN peacekeeping force (UNAMID), and obstructing at every stage efforts to reach a peaceful resolution to the conflict.
The Sudanese government has not convincingly shown that debt-relief would actually serve the interests of the its impoverished population. President Bashir and the National Congress Party (NCP) in Sudan continue to obstruct the full implementation of the North-South peace agreement and the 2005 Interim Constitution which includes a Bill of Rights. At every turn over the last five years, Bashir and the NCP have frustrated attempts to bring about true political and judicial reforms for all Sudanese.
KHARTOUM’S RECENT APPEALS FOR DEBT FORGIVENESS
This summer the Sudanese government officially requested help from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in obtaining a debt-relief package from the international community. In July, Japan wrote off $28 million in debt while NCP officials raised the issue with British officials on at least two occasions. David Shinn, former U.S. Ambassador to Ethiopia, in testimony before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, also recommended that the international community “begin the process of looking at Sudan’s debt, especially if Khartoum makes progress in ending the Darfur conflict.”
PRESIDENT OBAMA AND THE G-20: DON’T FORGIVE SUDAN’S DEBT
President Obama should lead the international community in making clear that any condition of debt-relief can happen only if Sudan makes proven and significant progress toward: peace in Darfur, the full implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), and significant structural reforms that fundamentally change the repressive systems in Sudan. By adopting this approach, President Obama would be carrying out his inaugural offer to repressive regimes of extending a hand – but only to those willing to “unclench” their fists.
If the Sudanese government demonstrably changes its behavior to the benefit of all of Sudan’s people, the U.S. should lead efforts to facilitate a debt-relief package for Sudan with the international community…But if the Sudanese government fails to match its rhetoric for peace with proven action, then the U.S. should make it clear to Sudan that it will use its role at the IMF and World Bank, as well as its position in the Paris Club, to block any potential debt-relief package.
Readers: What are your thoughts, if any, about Sudan’s Debt and what the G20 should do? Maybe Anonz will be reading this and he can tell us more and give us his thoughts.
May peace come to Darfur……peacin’ out again….
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle
Aka BABE: Your Bad Ass Bitch Editor
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September 25th, 2009 at 7:41 am
What amazes me, and yet at the same time annoys me, is the political/economic games that are played as people are raped, killed, and tortured for years before “relief” efforts are created for a paltry $31 Billion, yet the U.S. pisses away that money to the failed corporations without a blink.
I understand that the game of politics exists and capitalism exists, but that doesn’t mean we can’t change the rules of the game that seems to be failing 99% of the people of this planet. I mean, the top 1-2% play a different game than the rest of the entire planetary populace to which simply follow along and wait for and complete for the scraps.
We can see that the ways of the world are failing most participants, and the G20 bicker about payments that nearly each of those country’s has granted to a corporation while most of the world continues to starve, be killed or mamed, or sold to slavery or numerous other horrific acts…
It’s time for a global Ghandi!
September 26th, 2009 at 8:41 am
Bah Hum-bug, the 1% club ain’t gonna help no-one but themselves. They own the world, and the rest of us are lucky we aren’t arrested for trespassing.
Al