[stop-imf] As World Bank Begins Wolfowitz Era ... -- Interviews Available

[Robert Weissman]

Institute for Public Accuracy

915 National Press Building, Washington, D.C. 20045
(202) 347-0020 * http://www.accuracy.org * ipa@accuracy.org
___________________________________________________

=09Thursday, April 14, 2005

=09As World Bank Begins Wolfowitz Era ...

=09Interviews Available

   The World Bank, International Monetary Fund and G7 will all be meeting
this weekend in Washington, D.C. The following are available for interviews=
:

BERNICE ROMERO, [via Caroline Green, (202) 496-1174, (202) 321-7858],
Caroline.Green@oxfaminternational.org,
http://www.oxfam.org/eng/pr050411_G7_debt.htm
Romero is international advocacy director for Oxfam. He said today: "Since
the G7 met in February, another 2 million people have died due to poverty.
... As G7 finance leaders meet at the IMF and World Bank spring meetings
this weekend, they must act to cancel 100 percent [of the] multilateral
debt owed by the poorest countries. The IMF's own data clearly show that
selling a portion of its gold reserves to cancel poor countries' debts is a
viable option. ... Currently, the world's poorest countries spend more on
debt repayments -- $100 million a day -- than they do on health. For the
cost of a cup of coffee per person each year in a developed country, 100
percent of the poorest countries' debts could be cancelled. Oxfam
calculates it would cost just over $3 per person annually in the UK, $2.20
per person in Japan and Germany, $2.10 per Canadian citizen, $1.80 per
person in France and just $1.20 per U.S. citizen, to cancel 100 percent of
multilateral debt for 32 of the world's poorest countries."

[Photo Advisory: On Friday, April 15, at 10 a.m., in the park outside the
World Bank and IMF buildings, corner of 18th and Pennsylvania Avenue,
Washington D.C., a massive 10-foot-high clock face will be placed and will
be officially "turned on" to start ticking -- the huge hands will symbolize
that Every Second Counts -- one child dies every three seconds because of
poverty. People from around the world will take part.]

JONAH GOKOVA, LIDY NACPIL, [via Neil Watkins (202) 421-1023 or Debi Kar
(202) 246-8143], gokov@ecoweb.co.zw, lidyjs@jubileesouth.org,
http://www.jubileesouth.org
Gokova chairs the Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development and is the
2001 Winner of the Africa Prize for Leadership. Nacpil is the International
Coordinator of Jubilee South, a network of 40 debt-cancellation advocacy
groups across Asia, Africa, and Latin America. She is also general
secretary of the Freedom from Debt Coalition in the Philippines.

M=D4NICA DIAS MARTINS, VIRGINIA SETSHEDI, [via Soren Ambrose, (202) 285-583=
6,
or at (202) 234-3200 x 724], soren@igc.org
Martins is a professor of political science at the State University of
Ceara, Brazil, and coordinates research on the World Bank and the
nation-state. Setshedi is with the Anti-Privatization Forum in
Johannesburg, South Africa. She has been active in the movement to
reconnect electricity and water when they have been disconnected for people
in Soweto. Setshedi said today: "The people's movements in South Africa
that liberated the country from apartheid are now focused on the
neo-liberal privatization programs pushed by the World Bank and IMF. ... We
are in solidarity with the movements in Africa and around the world that
are turning back the profit-driven model of the World Bank and IMF, and
creating real democracies that respond to the legitimate needs of the peopl=
e."

[Press Conference: "Civil Society Discusses Opportunities for Debt
Cancellation through G-7 Proposals," sponsored by Africa Action, Jubilee
USA Network, and 50 Years is Enough Network, is scheduled at the National
Press Club, Murrow Room, on April 14 at 1 p.m. An analysis of a leaked IMF
report by finance expert Sony Kapoor [showing the feasibility of IMF gold
sales to finance debt cancellation] will be released at the press
conference. Copies of a letter to President George Bush and Treasury
Secretary John Snow signed by hundreds of religious leaders urging debt
cancellation will also be distributed.]

NEIL WATKINS, (202) 783-0129, (202) 421-1023, neil@jubileeusa.org
Watkins is national coordinator of Jubilee USA Network. He said today:
"Last year, African nations spent more than $13 billion on debt payments to
wealthy creditors including the IMF and World Bank. ... Between 1970 and
2002, Africa received about $540 billion in loans and has already paid back
over $550 billion to wealthy creditors such as the G7 countries, the World
Bank and the IMF. But interest charges mean Africa's debt stands at nearly
$300 billion."

STEVE HELLINGER, (202) 265-0500, (202) 898-1566,
shellinger@developmentgap.org, http://www.ippinfo.org,
http://www.developmentgap.org
Hellinger is the president of Development GAP. While incoming World Bank
president Paul Wolfowitz has talked much about democracy, Hellinger noted:
"A lack of democracy pervades all levels of the international financial
institution, from the appointment of its senior staff by the leaders of the
U.S. and Europe, to the way [these institutions] work in developing
countries. More than 1,000 parliamentarians from 50 parliaments around the
world have signed a petition, which will be presented by 10 of their
representatives to the World Bank and IMF on Friday, calling for a central
role for national legislatures in the development, scrutinizing and
ratifying of World Bank and IMF loan agreements."

[There will be a meeting with the World Bank and the IMF at 1 p.m. on
Friday at the World Bank's J Building in room JB1-080. The meeting will be
open to the media. There will also be an open forum on Sunday, from 2 to 4
p.m., at SAIS, 1740 Massachusetts. Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C.]

[On Sunday, April 17, delegates will speak at a conference on "The Bank,
the Fund and Parliamentarians: Democracy Denied?" This event will be held
from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Johns Hopkins University School for Advanced
International Studies at 1740 Massachusetts Ave., Washington, D.C.]

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020, (202) 421-6858; or David Zupan, (541) 484-916=
7