Africa's Debt, Trade, and Diamonds

by Margy Ward

An excellent resource for information and action on issues in Africa is the Washington Office on Africa (WOA). In order to prioritize their efforts, the Board of WOA, during the past year, selected three themes on which the WOA's actions would be directed under the "Millennial Campaign for Africa: Toward a Just U.S. Policy." The three themes are economic justice, peace and reconciliation, and health and human welfare. Work on these three themes will include efforts on the issues of debt cancellation, fair trade, and "conflict diamonds."

Debt Cancellation

In spite of recent progress, there is much to do against the odious debt owed to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) by African nations. According to the working group Drop the Debt (of which the WOA is a part), both the IMF and World Bank could cancel 100 percent of the debt by using their own resources. The World Bank could utilize a small amount of its $2 billion income. The IMF has access to reserves from its Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility.

Despite the 1999 promise of many wealthy nations to cancel debts of countries agreeing with Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative criteria, in practice, the amount of debt cancellation falls far short of being complete! The criteria have been quite controversial.

Two pieces of legislation are before the U.S. House of Representatives. Rep. Barbara Lee (Dem., CA) introduced HR 1567, which places debt cancellation in the context of the AIDS pandemic. It is like the bill HR 1642, from the office of Rep. Maxine Waters (Dem., CA), which seeks to cancel 100 percent of debt to the IMF and World Bank. HR 1642 is directed to modify the HIPC Initiative.

Much of Africa's $300 billion debt is considered illegitimate and questionable. During the Cold War and later, a significant portion of loans to Africa went to repressive regimes and corrupt leaders, who used money to increase their power or fill their own personal pockets--such as Mobutu of Congo and Abacha of Nigeria. For the last fifteen years of apartheid in South Africa, the white-only government accumulated more than $18 billion in debt. At the same time, its destabilization policy caused neighboring nations to borrow $26 billion.

Fair Trade

The WOA calls for real fair-trade relationships between the U.S. and Africa. The aggressive move by the U.S. and other industrial nations to foster international trade agreements is a great threat to African countries. In the Millennial Campaign for Africa: Toward a Just U.S. Policy, WOA stresses opposition to multinationals' theft of Africa's patent life forms. By patent and licensing, the U.S. claims a great number of Africa's indigenous resources.

What are the small farmers to do against the forces of agribusiness promoting genetically modified organisms (GMO) and other patented seeds and plants? Africans are speaking up to protect their communities' rights over their resources. At the World Trade Organization (WTO) Third Ministerial in Seattle (1999), the African group of ministers opposed the patenting of life in any of its forms. They continue to push their position in preparation for the WTO's Fourth Ministerial this November.

The Organization of African Unity (OAU) has drafted the "African Model Legislation for the Protection of Rights of Local Communities, Farmers, and Breeders," and the "Regulation of Access to Biological Resources," and has been urging individual African governments to enact this basic legislation into national law. The WOA is committed to support these African initiatives. They have prepared a "Declaration of Support," which many groups have endorsed.

Conflict Diamonds

"Conflict diamonds" are the political, military, and economic building blocks for the rebel forces in Sierra Leone, Angola, and the Congo (DRC.) While diamonds have long symbolized love in our culture, in contrast, the wealth produced by trade in conflict diamonds has funded the forced displacement of more than 6.3 million African people over the last ten years. The Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels in Sierra Leone have intimidated civilians by crude amputations of hands, feet, lips, ears, and noses. In Angola, a UN Security Council report reads, "diamonds had a uniquely important role within UNITA's political and military economy." In the Cold War, UNITA (the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola) was an ally to the U.S. and the apartheid government of South Africa.
This last July in Moscow, representatives of 38 nations met. The meetings included representatives of the diamond industry, governments, and non-governmental organizations. The group approved an international certification system that will keep conflict diamonds from the world market and insure the trade of legitimate diamonds from Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa. Despite encouraging developments over the last year, the WOA and their colleagues believe conflict diamonds must remain a focus for advocacy.

Many thanks to the Washington Office on Africa for keeping the focus on Africa.

WAMM Action!

The trade in "conflict diamonds"--gems that are used to fund warfare and civilian atrocities--has caused untold suffering in Sierra Leone as a result of a decade-long civil war. The brutal tactics of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), who routinely practice mutilation of innocent civilians, notably amputation of limbs and other body parts; forced recruitment of child soldiers, and abduction of women to be soldiers' "wives," are all tactics intended to maintain their reign over these lucrative resources.

Seeking to end the trade in conflict diamonds is a key route to ending the tragedy in Sierra Leone, and indeed elsewhere, including Angola. The way to do this is to establish an international diamond certification system that seeks to ensure that conflict diamonds are kept out of the retail market. Legislation before the US Congress moves that effort forward.

Urge your representative and senators to support the Clean Diamond Act.

Capitol Switchboard:
202-224-3121

U.S. Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510
or e-mail by going to www.senate.gov/contacting/index.cfm

U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515
or e-mail by going to www.house.gov/writerep

For further information:
Washington Office on Africa (WOA)
212 East Capitol Street
Washington, DC 20003.
202-547-7503 (phone)
202-547-7505 (fax)
woa@igc.apc.org
www.woaafrica.org