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G8
focus on debt relief and arms control
By Mark Engler
EVIAN
- The world capital of designer water
may be a fitting city to host the heads
of state from the eight most powerful
industrial nations for three days
starting on Sunday. But the image of
wealthy leaders sipping "l'original"
gourmet H20 will hardly help the Group
of Eight (G8) to defend itself against
charges of being an elitist and
undemocratic forum.
Given that many in this group of
countries opposed the invasion of Iraq,
commentators will be closely watching
how tensions between the United States
and "Old Europe" evolve during
President George W Bush's trip to
France. However, the real clash in
international vision will be taking
place outside the meeting halls, on the
streets.
Debt and arms control, two important
issues on the Evian meeting's agenda,
show that those who gather to protest
are not only voicing important
criticisms about the illegitimacy of the
meeting, but are also proposing vital
solutions to international problems.
Debt relief, the question of whether
wealthy nations should free poorer ones
from the burden of making crushing loan
payments, has held a central place in
discussion in G8 meetings over the past
five years. This year, the debate is
back again, but in an unusual form. The
US, which has traditionally been among
the most reticent to grant real debt
relief, now argues that forgiveness is
essential - for Iraq.
Iraq owes upwards of US$60 billion to
foreign creditors, plus reparations for
its invasion of Kuwait. Bush is
concerned that, without relief, the
country will be forced to spend so much
of its economic resources on debt
service that reconstruction will be
impossible.
The other G8 countries don't necessarily
disagree. However, European leaders are
not thrilled about having the debt
debate hijacked at the service of
unilateralist US foreign policy
prerogatives. The Bush administration's
treatment of other debtor countries
suggests that the president's newfound
sympathy has more to do with vindicating
his "regime change" than with
any humanitarian change of heart.
Just last month, the White House blocked
the creation of a Sovereign Debt
Restructuring Mechanism at the
International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Although most of the world, including
European trade ministers, supported the
mechanism - in essence a global
bankruptcy court - the US argued that it
would be too expensive to even consider
allowing debt-crushed countries to
legally default on their private loans.
The example of Iraq illustrates a point
that protestors from the Jubilee debt
relief coalition have made for years:
much of the debt held by countries in
the developing world is in fact
"odious" - the result of loans
that wealthy creditors made to
tyrannical governments. It is simply
inhumane for G8 countries, including the
US, to saddle impoverished citizens with
these debts after the dictators fall. If
wealthy countries are serious about
aiding freedom, they must recognize the
illegitimacy not only of Iraq's
obligations, but of all odious debt.
Disarmament and non-proliferation, which
will rank high on the Evian meeting's
agenda, represent a second area in which
protesters, rather than the governments,
are offering humane international
solutions.
During its action in Iraq, the US
presented itself as the only country
willing to take the lead against weapons
of mass destruction. But the US has
impeded virtually every major diplomatic
effort at arms control now on the map -
from the nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty, the Anti-Ballistic Missile
Treaty, the Comprehensive Test Ban
Treaty and the biological weapons treaty
to new efforts to control land mines,
small arms, the sale of weapons to
repressive governments, or the
deployment of arms in space.
The G8 as a whole has a somewhat better
record. However, the fact that countries
like France, Russia, Germany and the UK
stand with the US as the world's leading
dealers of conventional weaponry has
often led them to oppose restrictions on
arms sales to dictators. These five
countries together were responsible for
nearly $83 billion worth of arms
transfers between 1997 and 2001.
Recognizing that an effective pursuit of
a safer world cannot be based on the
narrow self-interest of world powers,
popular movements have demanded strong
controls on the production, use, and
marketing of weaponry - whether
conventional, chemical or nuclear.
The non-proliferation proposals that
French President Jacques Chirac intends
to put on the table at Evian will no
doubt merit international attention. But
since the US and other G8 countries
consistently bargain based on
shortsighted visions of their national
well-being, their watered-down
agreements will fall far short of the
vision of "human security"
advocated on the streets.
Protesters' arguments about arms and
debt illustrate a larger criticism of
the G8. Having powerful global elites
get together to shape the current world
order may be realpolitik, but it's not
democracy. Nor are the institutions that
the G8 has championed, like the World
Trade Organization and the IMF,
representative bodies of global
governance.
If the goal is freedom, or making the
world a safer place, then rule by the
rich will never prevail. Until the
official venues are reconstituted to
allow the voices of the world to speak,
protests outside will be needed to call
for a real multilateralism.
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