Media Statement, 5th July 2005

British Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, has been accused of grossly irresponsible behaviour by GOAL, following his call last evening for all Third World nations to have their debt cancelled.

GOAL CEO John O'Shea believes the UK Minister has lost touch with reality and is being carried away on a wave of self importance and emotion.

In a hard hitting statement O'Shea said "The millions who watched that traumatic Panorama documentary on the tragedy of Darfur last evening will be utterly confused today.

They will wonder why governments which practice genocide -in this case Sudan - are rewarded with debt relief.

What Brown is proposing is preposterous and morally indefensible. He should immediately withdraw his remarks.

He must be made realise that the bulk of Third World Governments will use the money saved by increasing the size of their armies - which are already, in many cases, huge. Curiously, a picture is yet to be taken of a hungry African soldier.

There is absolutely no case for putting cash into the hands of thugs who are either brutalising their own people or invading their neighbour's territory in search of valuable minerals.

And sadly Africa has a plethora of leaders who boast appalling human rights records."

O'Shea believes that debt relief should be available only to Governments in the Third World who have shown, in a transparent way, a willingness to embrace good, honest governance.

"Clearly the G8 are not interested in good governance - they have told the world this by already granting debt relief to such nations as Ethiopia, Rwanda and Uganda - nations, which in recent times, have been guilty of shocking human rights abuses.

Days after announcing that Ethiopia was being given the bonus of debt relief, the Ethiopian armed forces massacred 36 of its citizens, who had been protesting at what they alleged were rigged presidential elections.

Five million innocent people are dead in the Congo - yet Uganda and Rwanda, the two nations, cited by the United Nations as being primarily responsible, are high on the debt relief list."

O'Shea believes that if the G8 nations are serious about ending Third World poverty, they should take measures which would:

(a) Ensure protection for the millions of vulnerable people at risk from their despots and genocidal maniacs.
(b) Ban all arms sales to Third World Governments. Significantly the G8 sell 84% of all the arms that flow into the Third World.
(c) Trade fairly with the Third World.
(d) Tackle, in a meaningful manner, the endemic and institutionalised corruption which robs the poor of the Third World of a staggering $150 billion each year.