'Cancel African debt'
2005-02-21 15:02
Tokyo - Nobel Peace Prize laureate Wangari Maathai of Kenya called Monday for rich nations to cancel debts owed by Africa's countries, saying their payments were draining resources from the continent's battle against poverty, environmental disaster and warfare.
Maathai, who is Kenya's deputy environment minister, won the 2004 Nobel Peace for her efforts to improve the environment and women's rights, as well as fight corruption in Africa.
She called the debt repayments an unfair burden falling on the wrong people.
"We all know Africa is deeply indebted," Maathai said at a news conference in Tokyo, part of a nine-day visit to Japan that included a keynote speech at the enactment of the Kyoto Protocol on global warming last week.
Into their pockets
She said much of Africa's debts were racked up by corrupt officials and that those who gave the money knew it would go into their pockets and not to the poor.
"And yet the people who are being asked to pay those debts to this day are the poor people," Maathai said. "These debts should be cancelled to remove the burden."
She encouraged the Group of Eight industrialised nations to continue their efforts to address debt relief.
Leaders of the G-8 nations - the United States, France, Canada, Italy, Japan, Britain, Germany and Russia - agreed last June to extend for another two years a debt-relief programme for the world's poorest nations. Aid groups called for more, including complete debt forgiveness.
Maathai, the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, said that trade barriers and the lack of capital investment by richer countries in Africa were also slowing development on the continent.
Maathai, 64, founded the Green Belt Movement, which has sought to empower women, improve the environment and fight corruption in Africa for nearly 30 years. She has often stressed how peace efforts must also address poverty and the conflict over scarce resources.
Maathai leaves on Tuesday to return to Kenya.
- AP