Developing countries want better deal from lenders

April 12, 2000
Web posted at: 10:41 p.m. EDT (0241 GMT)

In this story: Annan calls for political liberalization Wahid warns against infighting RELATED STORIES, SITES

From staff and wire reports

HAVANA -- Cuban president Fidel Castro, whose nation is hosting the Group of 77 summit, called for the developing countries to unite as never before -- to seek debt relief and break the power of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

Castro demanded a "Nuremberg trial" for financiers, who he said have left Third World nations impoverished and weak. His brief but pointed speech was much shorter than the two- or three-hour one he had promised journalists he'd give at the G77's first-ever meeting outside the United Nations.

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"We need a Nuremberg," Castro said, "to put on trial the economic order that they have imposed on us that every three years kills more men, women and children by hunger and preventable or curable diseases than the death toll in six years of the Second World War."

African and Asian leaders instead proposed better access to world markets and debt relief.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said what the developing world needed more was political liberalization. "A country's economic success depends in large measure on the quality of governance it enjoys," he said.

The G77, founded in 1964 to address issues confronting the world's poor nations, continues its summit in Havana through Friday. Representatives of 122 of the organization 133 member nations are present at the summit.

Though not as hard-edged as Castro's call, a draft document of a proposed plan of action for taking financial pressure off poorer countries has emerged at the summit. It urges the United Nations to take a larger role in distributing economic aid, lessening the role of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

Also under consideration in the draft document are calls for preferential trade for poor nations and recommendations to improve poorer countries' access to information and information technology such as the Internet.

Castro also called for a 1 percent tax on speculative financial transactions and proposed that the rich pay more for oil to finance cheaper fuel for the poorer nations.

Delegations from Pakistan and Nigeria called for action to stop corrupt politicians from smuggling money out of their countries into rich international banks.

"North and south must also adopt measures to arrest the growing phenomenon of illegal capital flight and the repatriation of illicit wealth siphoned abroad by corrupt political leaders and their collaborators back to their countries of origin," said Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo.

A division has arisen at the summit between countries such as Cuba and Malaysia -- which propose radical overhauls of the world economy -- and others favoring negotiated solutions with the richer nations, said Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid.

"If we quarrel about approaches to be made, then all will face losses," Wahid said, warning that infighting among the poorer nations could scuttle chances of a united voice to address their concerns.

Correspondent Bill Delaney and Reuters contributed to this report.

U.N. chief pitches democracy in Cuba
April 11, 2000

United Nations
The World Bank Group
International Monetary Fund
Group of 77

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