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Press release
18 March 2003
'Penguins' celebrate as Iceland drops Guyana debt claim
Third World debt campaigners are today celebrating victory after The Big Food Group, owners of Iceland food stores, announced it will drop its £12m debt claim against the poverty-stricken South American state of Guyana.
The company last night dumped its legal bid to recover a twenty six year old debt, equivalent to 10 percent of the Guyanese Government's annual income. The move came on the eve of a series of 'Penguins Against Third World Debt' protests to be held outside Iceland stores from today.
Organisers of the protests, The Jubilee Debt Campaign and the World Development Movement, welcomed the climb down. WDM's Beverley Duckworth said: "We're delighted that the Big Food Group has done the right thing by the people of Guyana and dropped this case. However this is not the end of Guyana's debt burden. We call on the IMF and the World Bank to follow Iceland's example and fully cancel the far larger debt Guyana owes to them. The campaign for debt cancellation for all of the world's poorest countries continues."
The claim by the Big Food Group was due to be heard at the International Centre for Settlements of Investment Disputes, an arm of the World Bank, in London later this month. A spokesperson for the Big Food Group yesterday admitted: "The interests of our company and those of the people of Guyana are best served by not proceeding."
Ashok Sinha, Co-ordinator
of Jubilee Debt Campaign said the victory:
"Demonstrates that the campaign to end the debt crisis continues
to have massive popular support. And that debt campaigners can be successful
in winning debt relief on behalf of the world's poorest people. We will
not go away until the debt does."
Supporters of JDC and WDM held a "Penguins Against Third World Debt" victory celebration this morning outside an Iceland store in Clapham, South London.
One of the penguins was played by Desiree Howells, a supporter of the Jubilee Debt Campaign originally from Guyana. She said: "It is great news for the poor in Guyana, for the many people with aids, for the thousands who are unemployed, for the elderly who can hardly survive on their pensions. Thanks to Jubilee Debt Campaign and the World Development Movement. I feel like dancing!"
"It is unjust that poor countries, not only Guyana, but sub-Saharan Africa, have to pay and pay and pay when they have already paid off the debt and it is just exorbitant interest that keeps them like slaves, and deprives them of health care and education."
Guyana is one of the
world's poorest countries. It has a population of only 770,000 and its
citizens have an average income of just £1.50 a day.
ENDS
Notes for editors
1. High resolution pictures of Desiree Howells at the "Penguins Against
Third World Debt" celebration are available from the WDM press office.
2. Guyana's debt to the Big Food Group, compensation for the nationalisation of Guyana's sugar industry (then owned by Booker) in 1976, was set at £13m to be repaid at 6% interest over 20 years. Guyana defaulted in 1989; the outstanding debt is £6.8m with £5.3m accumulated interest. A total of £12.1 million. The Big Food Group took over Booker in 2000.
Contact:
Dave Timms, Press Officer, WDM, 07711 875 345 or 020 7274 7630. Or email
dave@wdm.org.uk
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