Zuid Soedan hoort met een schone lei beginnen
Datum: 01-02-2011
Collega's van Jubilee Debt Campaign UK hebben een artikel geschreven over de gevolgen van de Soedanese schuld voor Zuid Soedan. Een van de opties die op tafel ligt is dat een deel van de totale Soedanese schuld aan Zuid Soedan toegekend wordt, waarna een kwijtscheldingstraject in gang gezet zou worden. Dit is echter een langdurig proces dat tal van nadelige gevolgen met zich meebrengt. Te denken valt aan door het IMF opgelegde hervormingen en nieuwe leningen om de duur van het kwijtscheldingsproces te overbruggen.
Daarnaast blijkt uit onderzoek van Jubilee Debt Campaign dat ruim 90 procent van de schuld aan het Verenigd Koninkrijk bestaat uit rente op schulden die zijn ontstaan uit exportkredieten. Uit cijfers van Jubilee Nederland blijkt dat Soedan als geheel een schuld heeft van 100 miljoen Euro aan Nederland, volledig het gevolg van exportkredieten. Niet bekend is welk deel van deze schuld uit rente bestaat.
South Sudan should not be born into debt Nick Dearden and Tim Jones, Jubilee Debt Campaign 1 February 2011 The nearly unanimous South Sudanese referendum result announced over the weekend is likely to lead to independence for a southern state by July. But it only marks one step along the road to true sovereignty for this oppressed and impoverished people. As south Sudan's oil wealth has been used to enrich elites in the North for decades, so it is now being viewed with hungry eyes by the US and its allies. The debt which is inherited by this new state is likely to play a key element in attempts to assert control on south Sudan from the outside. The Sudanese government in Khartoum currently has a debt of $35 billion, large parts of which stretch back to the 1970s and '80s when the regime of General Nimeiry was propped up by the US. $20 billion of this debt represents interest, following years of default by the Bashir regime. The UK claims Sudan owes £650 million ($1 billion) to the Government's Export Credit Guarantees Department – the department which insures some British exports, usually arms, aerospace and big fossil fuel projects. The department refuses to say what projects the debt is based on. What we do know is that since 1984 an interest rate of between 10 and 12 per cent has been charged on this debt, wildly inflating it – in fact new figures reveal that up-to 90 per cent of Sudanese debt owed to the UK is interest. Justice demands that south Sudan is not handed a portion of Khartoum’s debt, but the International Monetary Fund probably has other ideas. One suggestion is that Sudan will be allocated debt on its inception that will then be cancelled. No-one should fall into the trap of believing this to be just – in reality it would mean the southern state would be forced to go through a lengthy cancellation process, during which it would probably have to take out new loans to pay interest on its unjust debts, as well as whatever reforms the IMF felt like pushing on the country. It would ensure south Sudan could not escape from the grips of international institutions and their neo-liberal ideology. Meanwhile, popular protests have spread to Khartoum in north Sudan. Here too, most of the accumulated debts undoubtedly arose more through international power play than genuine attempts to improve the lives of Sudan’s people. The people of Sudan might want to take a look at the calls of people as far apart as Greece and Bolivia, and call for an audit of Sudan’s debts so they can find out just what the debts paid for and how legitimate they are. Sovereignty for south Sudan means much more than a declaration of independence from the north. It means the people of that country controlling their own economic development. But with a large debt hanging over their heads, and reserves of oil ready to plunder, the people of south Sudan will need to be prepared to continue to struggle for real freedom.
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