Illegitimate debt meeting in UK parliament

On Monday 23 July, Jubilee Debt Campaign held a public meeting on illegitimate debt in the Houses of Parliament, with speakers from Africa and Latin America.

(left to right) Colette Lespinasse, Ann McKechin MP, Mfuni Kazadi, Trisha Rogers

The meeting, chaired by Ann McKechin MP, heard first hand testimony on the effects of illegitimate debts in Haiti and the Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as about the campaign to identify and cancel illegitimate debts in the UK. It also debated the role that MPs and campaigners must play to ensure transparency and responsibility in development lending in the future.

Illegitimate debts
Trisha Rogers, Director of Jubilee Debt Campaign, gave a short history of illegitimate debt and lender responsibility over the last hundred years. The idea that debts where the people of the country did not benefit from the funds that were borrowed are ‘illegitimate’ is not new, she explained, but many poor countries are still paying back precisely these kinds of debts to the rich world.

Irresponsible lending to corrupt and oppressive governments, on unfair terms, or to benefit companies in the North, must be investigated and redressed, as Jubilee's Lift the Lid campaign calls for.

She encouraged MPs to sign the new International Parliamentarians Declaration for Responsible Lending, as part of preventing further unjust and unpayable debts from building up in the future.

Haiti
Colette Lespinasse, Director of GARR Haiti, explained that Haiti has been indebted since it won its independence from French colonialism in 1804. Haiti was forced to pay compensation to France for the loss of its colony, and in 1838, eventually had to borrow money to the tune of 150 million francs in gold from France itself in order to do so. From 1957 to 1986 the Duvalier dictatorship ruled Haiti and borrowed approximately $700 million for private investment in off-shore bank accounts, she said.

"It is obvious that the main international lenders, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the Inter-American Development Bank, were very much aware of what was going on in the country," Colette said.

"The population of Haiti has to work very hard every day to pay back debts which they did not contract and from which they did not benefit. This is why we say this is an odious debt and a form of forced labour, a form of enslavement just like that which we have struggled so hard to free ourselves from."

Democratic Republic of Congo
Mfuni Kazadi from the Democratic Republic of Congo, expressed extreme frustration that a country so rich in natural resources as his should be confronted by enormous poverty, debt, and limited social services – largely due to the debts accumulated during the dictatorship of President Mobutu.

As a result, money is dedicated to repaying extortionate debt, rather than being channelled into social spending and the country's development. This leaves the majority of the population on a wage of 18 cents a day.

"We don't see why the Congolese people must pay back Mobutu's debts," he said. "We are appealing to the British parliament to help the Congolese people."

>> TAKE ACTION: ASK YOUR MP TO LIFT THE LID