'No debt relief punishes poor'
2005-07-20 14:58
Johannesburg - Rich countries who refuse to cancel Africa's debt are punishing poor, ordinary Africans and not the continent's corrupt leaders, Kenyan Nobel peace laureate Wangari Maathai said on Tuesday.
Delivering a lecture to celebrate former South African president Nelson Mandela's 87th birthday, Maathai said she acknowledged the concerns expressed by Group of Eight (G8) leaders at their summit in Scotland earlier this month.
Doubts over corrupt African governments
"The G8 leaders had reasons for their doubts, some African governments do not respect the rule of law and human rights," Maathai told an audience in Johannesburg that included Mandela, former US president Bill Clinton and former archbishop Desmond Tutu.
"They were therefore unlikely to cancel all the debt. (But) when (African) countries are denied debt relief it is the many poor that suffer and the poor who are punished," she said.
G8 leaders have committed an increase in aid to Africa by $25bn a year by 2010, but have been criticised for failing to go beyond the $40bn in immediate debt write-offs for the world's poorest 18 countries, which their finance ministers agreed on last month.
Mandela was presented with a cake with four candles, which he blew out to loud applause from the audience, which sang "Happy Birthday" led on by a boisterous Tutu.
"Madiba, you are a source of great joy and pride for all of us in Africa and indeed the whole world," Maathai told the statesman, affectionately using Mandela's Xhosa clan name.
Low-key birthday
The third Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture is part of birthday celebrations held to "recognise his legacy and celebrate Mandela", said John Samuel, chief executive of Mandela's foundation.
The idea to have a lecture started on his 85th birthday in 2003, with Clinton giving the inaugural address, followed last year by Tutu, who like Maathai is a Nobel peace laureate.
Mandela celebrated a low-key birthday on Monday, surrounded by his wife Graca Machel and family at his rural home of Qunu, in southeastern South Africa.
His birthday capped a generally unhappy year for the former anti-apartheid hero, who is embroiled in a bitter legal dispute over the sale of fake artworks bearing his name and the death of his only surviving son, Makgatho, from Aids.