Don't Owe, Won't Pay

By Lewis Machipisa

In the dock was Foreign Debt. Crime committed? Sacrificing people through exacting payment. Simulating a real court drama was a 10-member jury and judges who listened to testimonies from scores of witness at yesterday's International People's Tribunal on Debt.

Presiding over the proceedings was Dumiso Ntsebeza, a real judge in South Africa. And he struck the cool but firm stance of the court's top official. To his right, sat world acclaimed Egyptian writer, Nawal el Sadawi, who has been fighting the Islamic fundamentalist oppression of women, joined by a Senator from Philippines, a Member of Parliament from India and a representative from Argentina's Movement of the Mothers of the Disappeared.

This was an International People's Tribunal on the Debt.

'We have actually put the debt on trial and we are accusing it of being illegitimate and something that is not owed by our people,' said Brian Ashley of Jubilee South, which unites debt cancellation campaigns and social movements all over the world.

The World Social Forum tribunal heard testimonies from China, Cote d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Mali, Nicaragua, Mexico, South Africa and Zimbabwe among others as they came to give their testimonies on the impact of the debt and to explain to the judge and jury why they believe this debt is unlawful.

And they said so in many ways. A participant from India described the debt regime as 'illegitimate, undemocratic, genocidal and homicidal,' to wild cheers from the packed 'courtroom'

Many of the witnesses said the debt had already been paid many times over. Others submitted that the debt was illegitimate because it was sacrificing people by paying it at the expense of giving AIDS medicines and education.

'It's illegitimate because many of the contracting parties have been illegitimate like the apartheid regime in South Africa, like the military dictatorship in Nigeria, that siphoned the money into Swiss banks,' said Jubilee South representative Ashley.

'And for most us, the debt is illegitimate because we know that it is the North that owes the South for the historical debt of colonialism, slavery, for the ecological damage that they have done.

'For all these reasons, we have come here to make the case for why the debt is illegitimate and why institutions like the IMF and World Bank should pay it. We need to have them put on trial as well,' he said

Though the tribunal was attended and supported by thousands of people, Ashley concedes that back home, debt activists have a tough time getting governments to pay attention.

'It's a big struggle to get our governments to listen to this issue. Most of our governments have been caught up inside this whole network of institutions and agents that perpetuate the misery of debt and therefore in many cases we need very powerful movements that are capable of mobilising thousands of people like you see today in order to make our governments listen to this issue,' he said.

There was very little respect for 'court' proceedings or rules requiring that people sit quietly in the 'courtroom'. The tribunal was held in a colourful atmosphere of song, dance and music. Hundreds of people danced to music provided by a four-member band that kept its audience captivated. The favourite song among the audience was the hastily composed hit, 'Don't Owe, Won't Pay'.

But the highlight of the tribunal was when the governor of Rio Grande do Sul, Olivio Dutra entered the 'courtroom'. 'A united people will never be defeated' the crowd chanted. Amandla! (Power to the People), the South Africans shouted, adding to the chorus of languages.

In a powerful address, Dutra told an attentive audience that it was the developed countries that owed them money instead.

'This debt, instead should be paid to us so that can use it to eradicate poverty, misery and child labour among our people,' said Dutra. 'The non-payment of debt is an expression of the sovereign will of the people to take control of what is theirs.'

'We need radical changes led by millions of people in all continents for world peace. We are the real wealth of humanity. We people are not commodities. A person has no price,' the governor said above the din.

At press time, the International People's Tribunal on Debt was still sitting. But a member of the jury confided to TerraViva that a guilty verdict would be passed, a sure death sentence for debt.