c. 1998 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ With a call to”break the chains of debt,”some 140 religious and secular activists met here over the weekend (Oct. 1-4) to bolster efforts in the U.S. religious and other communities at winning support for a campaign aimed at canceling the international debt owed by more than 40 of the world’s most impoverished nations by the year 2000.

The new millennium has already been declared a Year of Jubilee by Pope John Paul II and a number of Protestant leaders and Anglican bishops from around the world voiced support for the campaign when they met in their once-a-decade meeting in England last month.

In addition, the World Council of Churches is expected to pass a resolution on the issue when it meets in Harare, Zimbabwe, this December and jubilee celebrations will be among an array of events marking the turn of the century, including a newly designated Millennium Assembly of the United Nations.

The Jubilee 2000/USA movement takes its inspiration from the biblical book of Leviticus (25:8-55), which describes a Year of Jubilee every 50 years in which all debts are canceled and land is restored to its original owners.

Carole Collins, national coordinator of the organization, said”the spirit of the historic abolitionist movement”and the South African struggle against apartheid will be used as additional models for the campaign.

The campaign calls for”definitive cancellation of the crushing international debt in situations [of] high levels of human need and environmental distress.” But with fewer than 500 days remaining before the new millennium, Jubilee 2000/USA set ambitious goals for local and national events, prayer services, Congressional legislation, and meetings with global organizations such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The platform has been endorsed by a number of U.S. religious denominations and organizations, including the American Friends Service Committee, National Baptist Convention, African Methodist Episcopal Church, Bread for the World, and the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

Campaign organizers also said they will work cooperatively with Jubilee 2000 movements already active in 42 countries worldwide.

A petition drive has been launched in over 70 nations to call for a cancellation of the debt of some of the world’s poorest nations.

In England, where the first Jubilee campaign began, 70,000 demonstrators presented 1.2 million signatures to the G-8 meeting _ the top financial leaders of the world’s industrialized nations _ in Birmingham in May.

According to Collins, the 22 million signatures organizers aim to collect by 2000 will form the largest petition in world history.

Debt relief efforts are also underway in other European countries.

Norwegian students and aid organizations convinced their government to wipe out 50 percent of the debts of poor countries owed to Norway by 2000, with the money placed in a trust fund for education and health projects.

In Germany, the new Social Democratic/Green government has promised to make debt cancellation a priority when it assumes the presidency of the European Union in January 1999.

At the Washington conference, speakers from Europe, Canada, Latin America, and Africa joined U.S. activists from 21 states for three days of speeches, workshops and interfaith worship services.

Keynote speaker Bishop Bernardino Mandlate of the Wesleyan Church in Mozambique linked the biblical themes of jubilee and freedom from bondage in his address.”We should not only forgive the debts of poor people, but also perform restitution and reconciliation,”he said.

One of the most impoverished nations in Africa, Mozambique owes $300 million just in debt service each year. But the country can only afford to pay one-third of this amount.”Not even our great-grandchildren will ever be able to pay,”lamented Bishop Mandlate.

Participants also criticized the recent initiative by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund to reduce and reschedule the debt payments of a few poor countries under what it calls the”Heavily Indebted Poor Countries”(HIPC) initiative.

Developing countries currently owe a total of over $2 trillion to industrialized nations, as well as to the World Bank and IMF. The 41 most indebted countries _ 33 in Africa _ owe $214 billion, according to a conservative estimate, but only three of them have received HIPC assistance, activists contend.

African speakers emphasized that debt cancellation alone would not solve their continent’s problems.

Kofi Mawuli Klu of Ghana said the Jubilee 2000/Africa campaign focused on”capacity building of civil society,”including education, health care, and small business development. To avoid the danger of corruption present in many poor countries, debt relief must be”transparent and participatory, so that the poor benefit,”he said.

National organizers in the United States outlined an inclusive strategy for reaching out to minority and immigrant groups. Much of the media and educational materials will be distributed through faith-based networks.

Although the Clinton administration has supported the HIPC framework, the Treasury Department has also insisted any debt relief to countries must be tied to their meeting a set of strict economic accountability conditions.

With support for the jubilee effort from some members of Congress such as Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., however, the Jubilee 2000 campaign plans to push legislation such as that in Norway to reduce debt owed to the U.S. government as well as to multilateral institutions such as the World Bank. At an estimated $2.9 billion, the amount directly owed to the United States is considered relatively small.

Such a cancellation would not be without historical precedent. Much of Germany’s debt following World War II was forgiven and more recently the U.S. forgave debts owed by Eastern European nations such as Poland after the collapse of the Soviet bloc.

In both the German and Eastern European cases, debts had been incurred by previous dictatorial regimes. Many of the countries which currently suffer from high levels of debt share this predicament. South Africa, for example, is being forced to repay debts from the apartheid era.

South African poet Dennis Brutus challenged U.S. organizers to remedy this situation.”When we defeated apartheid,”Brutus said,”we didn’t know that the struggle would continue in a different form _ the struggle for economic justice.”

DEA END RNS