23.12.2008
LWF Affirms Support for Ecuador's Decision to Challenge Illegitimate Debt
Noko Cites Significance for Global CommunityGENEVA, 23 December 2008 (LWI) - The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) has expressed its support for Ecuador's recent decision to cease certain of its foreign debt service payments until it had determined the legitimacy of the country's external debts, estimated at USD 10 billion.
In a letter to Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa Delgado, LWF General Secretary Rev. Dr Ishmael Noko congratulates the president for his exemplary and courageous decision, "which may be the catalyst for liberating all of us-debtors and creditors, poor and rich-from the burden of illegitimate and unjust debt."
Noko notes the mid-December announcement by Correa that his country would now exercise its right to use all available national and international legal means to determine the legitimacy of its external debts, has already attracted strong criticism from the international economic mainstream and from those with a vested interest in preserving the current unjust system. "But I write to offer the LWF's support for your decision, and our prayers that you will be granted fortitude and wisdom in carrying it through in the face of such criticism," he adds, saying the initiative serves the global common good.
Correa's decision follows the release of the November 2008 report of the Commission for the Complete Auditing of Public Debt (Comisión para la Auditoria Integral del Crédito Público - CAIC). The report, according to Noko's letter, contains important findings and recommendations, including the conclusion that "a proportion-though by no means all-of Ecuador's debts may be regarded as illegitimate, and that legal means should be used to challenge them."
In his letter, Noko affirms the significance and importance of President Correa's decision not only for Ecuador but also "for the entire global village." He writes, "You are not merely seeking to avoid payment of debt service obligations, or addressing the issue from a purely economic perspective. You are, for the first time, insisting on a moral, ethical and legal approach to the issue of external debt, and seeking to resolve questions of the legitimacy of specific debts through independent legal instruments."
The general secretary recalls Correa's participation, before he became president, in a September 2005 LWF consultation on illegitimate debt, which elaborated the issue from biblical, theological, pastoral, historical, economic and juridical perspectives. The meeting and its outcome laid the basis for the LWF's subsequent work especially its Buenos Aires (Argentina)-based Program on Illegitimate Debt
The general secretary points out that in the context of the current global financial crisis and the underlying practices that have now been exposed, Ecuador's initiative "may help move us toward the reconstruction of an international financial architecture in which transparency, accountability and justice are fully respected by all." (462 words)
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