After Mitch: call for debt write-off (fwd)

[Robert Weissman <rob@essential.org>]

After Mitch: call for debt write-off

The Australian (From AFP, AP and The Times)
11nov98

CENTRAL American leaders have called for international banks to write
off the foreign debts of Honduras and Nicaragua, the nations worst hit by
 hurricane Mitch.

Gathered in El Salvador to assess the way forward for their devastated
 countries, the leaders of Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Costa
Rica called for the setting up of an organisation body to co-ordinate
 international aid, with representatives from the World Bank, the
International
 Monetary Fund, the Group of Seven leading industrialised countries
and the UN.

Honduran President Carlos Flores Facusse called his country's $US4.2
billion
($6.65 billion) debt "unpayable" after the crippling natural disaster. "In
72 hours,
we lost what we had built, little by little, in 50 years," he said.

Some European leaders were already proposing to help, following a plan
drawn up last week by former US president Jimmy Carter. French Prime
Minister
Lionel Jospin called for a moratorium on debt payments owed by countries
hit
by the hurricane. German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer also urged that
some debt be written off.

The tottering economies of the region have suffered a new blow, with
thousands
of banana workers facing the sack. As former US president George Bush
arrived
 in Honduras with the first of thousands of tons of US assistance,
multi-national fruit
 companies, which have exploited the fertile valleys of northern Honduras
for
almost a century, announced that they were firing their entire workforce,
numbering
 16,000. Employees of one of the companies, Standard Fruit, have begun
talks with
 the banana unions to negotiate a temporary severance package as a result
of the
 destruction of the crop. The company says almost 80 per cent of its
plantations
were ruined by floods.

A company spokesman said it was seeking "temporary suspension" of all
employees for 12 months, but would be offering a hurricane bonus,
interest-free
loans, food aid and medical attention. The unions accuse the company of
trying
 to profit from the disaster.

Environmental experts say the banana companies might not have come off as
badly as they suggest.

"The floods are good for business. They bring hidden benefits," said
Honduran
 political and economic analyst Manuel Torres. Studies showed sediment
washed
 into the valley by flooding carried valuable organic nutrients.

Officials put the death toll at 11,106 across Central America, with 15,300
people
missing and 2.37 million homeless, but Honduran authorities fear the toll
could
rise as rescuers were still unable to reach some 30,000 people yesterday.

Attempts to get to isolated villages have been hampered by rain and a
shortage
of planes, helicopters and fuel.

"We need more planes and helicopters, because there are areas we have not
been able to reach," said Colonel Raul Estrada, who heads the Joint
Operations
Centre in Honduras. "It is therefore possible we may have even more
deaths."

He said the 8000 Hondurans still missing "can now be considered as dead".
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