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Haiti - MRDF call for debt cancellation
Over one million people have been make homeless as a result of the earthquake that struck Haiti on January 12. © Reuters/Jorge Silva courtesy of www.alertnet.org |
Following Haiti's recent earthquake, MRDF is calling for the immediate cancellation of the country's debts.
MRDF has signed a letter – as part of the Jubilee Debt Campaign (JDC) – asking the government to do all that it can to encourage cancellation of Haiti's debts, which total over $890 million. We welcome the World Bank's recent five-year freeze on Haiti's debt repayments, but it is not enough.
Our Campaigns Officer, Anna Rogers, said: ‘We welcome the cancellation of two thirds ($1.2 billion) of Haiti's debt in 2009, when the UK also cancelled debts owed to it by Haiti. However, total debt cancellation would go a long way to helping Haiti recover from this devastating disaster. The country needs to focus its resources on rebuilding, not on repaying illegitimate debts.'
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has offered a loan to Haiti, which would be interest free until late 2011. We support JDC's criticism of the IMF for extending new loans to Haiti at a time when significant grant-aid is required. The charity is particularly critical of the IMF's decision to attach conditions to its loans, such as raising electricity prices and refusing to pay raises for any public sector employees except those making the minimum wage.
Anna said: ‘It is imperative that Haiti receives emergency financial assistance, however this must not come with damaging conditions. Immediate assistance that ultimately locks some of Haiti's most vulnerable people into poverty is not good enough. We call upon the IMF to take this opportunity to help thousands of people to rebuild their lives by offering grants rather than loans.'
The Director of Jubilee Debt Campaign, Nick Dearden, said: ‘Haiti's dire poverty has been on centuries of injustice perpetrated against the country by the rich world. It is time for our part of the world to pay its debt to Haiti. That means full cancellation of all of Haiti's debts and large grant funding. It is completely inappropriate for international institutions like the IMF, which bare a good degree of responsibility for the poor state of Haiti's economy today, to be making new loans with more damaging conditions.'