Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt

Paris, AFP (France Press Agency) - In a communiqué Monday, the Committee for the Abolition of Third World Debt (CADTM) called for the “absolute suppression” of the Paris Club Paris Club This group of lender States was founded in 1956 and specializes in dealing with non-payment by developing countries.

, a “true institutional anomaly” that celebrates its fiftieth birthday on Tuesday, “to finally achieve a total cancellation of the Southern countries’ debt”.

“A true institutional anomaly, the Paris Club has neither a legal existence nor status. It is a ‘non institution’ at the heart of international financial relations,” declares the CADTM.

“The cold financial logic that it defends is at the root of the crises affecting many developing countries,” continues the Committee, which asks the Paris Club
“to stop behaving like an impenetrable cartel of creditor countries”.

For the CADTM, the discussions of this Club comprising 19 creditor countries “reflect first and foremost the geopolitical interests at stake and are especially questionable”.

“Why has Iraq, occupied illegally by the United States and its allies, benefited from 80% debt cancellation when so many poor countries have not been granted a single reduction and when the countries affected by the Tsunami have at best been given only a one year moratorium, exposing them to the payment of additional interests?” asks the CADTM.

The Committee is organizing a demonstration Tuesday from 7.30pm in front of the French Treasury in Bercy, in the hope that “this birthday of the Paris Club will be the last one”.