c. 1998 Religion News Service

LONDON _ Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey, spiritual head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, saying the poor of the world are getting poorer as a result of international economic policies, has called for using the coming millennium observances to”remove the chains of indebtedness”that continue to”enslave”Africa.”We have to draw attention to that fact (of poverty) loudly and clearly, for even if there is reason for optimism in the long term … it is still wrong that, in the short term, those who suffer most should bear even greater burdens,”Carey said.

Carey’s Jan. 20 speech in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, put the archbishop in a growing camp of religious leaders and others who are urging that the year 2000 be marked as a”jubilee”year, a reference to the Old Testament vision that every 50 years debts were forgiven, mortgaged land returned and slaves freed. Jubilee 2000 groups have sprung up in the United States, Great Britain and a number of other industrialized nations, as well as in Third World countries.

In the speech, Carey was critical of international financial institutions, such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, and their insistence, as a price for aid, on severe economic reforms _ called structural adjustment programs _ that sharply limit a government’s ability to spend for domestic social welfare programs.”Such is the power of the international community, represented by the World Bank and the IMF, that (debtor governments) must comply with the conditions imposed. If they don’t, growth and progress are impossible. If they do, the burden is transferred to the very poor, who are crushed by the extra demands, and at a stroke (are) isolated from a world community which is getting steadily richer.”They (financial institutions) have not always had equal regard for the social consequences of their programs,”Carey said, adding that he believes”attitudes in the World Bank are changing.” Carey quoted from a document published by Christian Aid, the British churches’ aid and development agency, which noted an estimated 24 million people were enslaved in the course of the infamous slave trade across the Atlantic but last year the United Nations Development Program estimated 21 million children would die before the year 2000 if the debt crisis were not resolved.”Where slaves were once sent with a price attached to them, now children are born with a debt around their necks,”Carey quoted Christian Aid.”In Tanzania each new baby owes in the region of $250; in Mozambique, $350.” Of the 20 most heavily indebted poor countries, 16 are in Africa and the total debt for sub-Saharan Africa is $235 billion. Every day $36 million is being drained from Africa to service its debt.

Carey said he believes it is possible for the millennium to be a time of new beginnings for Africa.”I believe we have arrived at a decisive moment for Africa,”he said.”We must not allow it to pass, nor to threaten us in any way. Rather, it is the moment of opportunity.” (BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM)

The archbishop also cited what he called”myths and prejudices”about Third World debt harbored by ordinary people in Britain.”They are likely to focus on images of corrupt and dictatorial governments, tribalism, arms sales to governments that violently suppress their own people, and so on,”he said.”People are usually quite shocked, however, to be told that, in world terms, for every one dollar given in aid, three dollars are returned in debt service.” He said the Western nations should restrain being overly prescriptive in supporting African development.”Africa must be free to develop in its own way,”Carey said.”But there are certain fundamental concepts which we would all hope to see honored, which will create confidence in the partnership: transparency and accountability in government, justice and care for the weakest members of society, appropriate forms of democracy, ethical trading, proper working conditions for workers, and recognition of basic human rights, matched by co-responsibility to others.” (END OPTIONAL TRIM)

The millennium, Carey said,”will become a `kairos’ moment (a moment of truth) if we have the moral courage to take the chains off Africa by relieving her of the burden of unpayable debt.” DEA END NOWELL