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on
reparations and compensation
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Friday, March 28, 2003
Apartheid Debt & Reparations Campaign: Jubilee South Africa Media Release Thursday 27 March 2003 Pretoria, South Africa International Campaign for Apartheid-Caused Debt Cancellation and Reparations Stepped Up As pressure mounts for reparations from multinational banks and businesses that propped up and profited from apartheid human rights abuses, Jubilee South Africa's Apartheid Debt and Reparations Campaign today announced thatn it is holding two major international campaign events in Amsterdam (Netherlands) and Frankfurt (Germany) over the coming days. A delegation of six Apartheid Debt & Reparations Campaign representatives, including a representative if the Khulumani victims support group, will travel to Amsterdam and Frankfurt from today until 3 April 2003. On Friday, 28 March, the international campaign will host a round-table discussion in Amsterdam with representatives from business, political parties, and civil society organisations to highlight the case for apartheid reparations based on the illegitimacy of the apartheid debt. On Saturday, 29 March, corporate accountability will be highlighted during a public manifestation on Jubilee Day in Amsterdam. The event will focus on the need for a new human rights ethic for international business in today's world. From Monday, 31 March, to Tuesday, 1 April, the International Campaign for Apartheid-Caused Debt Cancellation and Reparations will hold its strategy meeting in Frankfurt. Representatives from solidarity campaigns in Britain, the United States of America, Belgium, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Germany will join the South African delegates at the internal meeting. During the meeting, the international campaign will review its activities over the past months and agree on plans to intensify its research and advocacy initiatives in support of the claims by apartheid victims. Part of international meeting will include a high-level televised discussion on similarities between the apartheid reparations claims and the recent Nazi slave labour reparations claims against businesses. Panellists will include key researchers, lawyers, economists, and campaigners from both the international apartheid reparations campaign and the German slave labour campaign. The delegation will return to South Africa on 3 April. To contact the delegation for comment, please call cell. +31 64 137 2462 in the Netherlands from 28 to 30 March and cell. +49 160 736 8968 in Germany from 30 March to 2 April. Issued by Neville Gabriel, Convenor: Apartheid Debt & Reparations Campaign Liz Johnstone Coordinator Apartheid Debt and Reparations Task Team Jubilee South Africa. Email: ljohnson@sacbc.org.za. Ph: +27 (0)12 323 6458 Fax: +27 (0)12 326 6218 Fax: +27 (0)12 325 6125
posted by Brandon at 3:12 PM
Saturday, March 22, 2003
Jubilee South Africa - London Agreement
Media Statement
Thursday, 27 February 2003 Today, 27 February 2003, marks the 50th anniversary of the London Agreement, which dealt with the debts of the then West Germany. Western leaders and major international bankers met in London in 1953 were they provided extraordinary generous terms of debt cancellation to Germany for its 1st and 2nd world war debts. These Terms are in stark contrast to the harsh conditions imposed on heavily indebted countries in the South "The contrast between the guilt behind the German debts and the innocence of most of the Third world debt could not be greater. Much of the third world debt lies in the recklessness of Western bankers, who in the 1970's deliberately unloaded surplus capital in the form of loans. Much of these aggressively marketed loans where "odious" in terms of international law and therefore not covered by the obligations of sovereign debt, while the debts of Germany where of a country perceived by the world to have been responsible for two world wars and the deaths of millions". Jubilee South Africa said in a statement issued today "The London Agreement placed conditions on the creditors and not on indebted Germany, today's debt repayment schemes for the "third world" like "Highly Indebted Poor Country" initiative (HIPC), lay down strict economic criteria on countries for inclusion under the initiative and ignore to place conditions on creditors". "The London Agreement was designed to promote Germany's reconstruction. A contemporary London Agreement, as part of an initiative for debt cancellation would go a long way towards freeing the Third World of its debt bondage in favour of its own legitimate reconstruction". Today in South Africa, there will be an action in the Western Cape coinciding with yesterday's announcement of budget restrictions for the reconstruction of the lives of the poor. The German Jubilee Campaign has called for a nation wide day of action today. In Frankfurt, Germany, at 11h00 -12h00 the German Campaign for the cancellation of Apartheid debt and reparations together with Church organisations, will hold a vigil outside of the Deutsche Bank and then unveil a plaque at the Marshall Fountain commemorating the Marshall Plan for the reconstruction of Europe post 2nd world war. The inscription reads "To the Victims of Debt". For Comment please contact:
South Africa: MP Giyose, Chairperson Jubilee SA, cell: 082 350-0361, 046
6242557. Or, Germany: Christoph Beninde, German Campaign for Apartheid-Caused Debt
Cancellation and Reparations tel: + 49 521 986 4852, Theo Kneifel, tel: + 49
6221 4333 12, Gottfried Welmer, tel: +49 228 694792
For Further references to the London Agreement Consult www.erlassjahr.de<http://www.erlassjahr.de>
posted by Brandon at 3:17 AM
Friday, March 21, 2003
Apartheid Debt & Reparations Campaign: Jubilee South Africa Media Statement Business Must Respect the Rule of Human Rights Law and Contribute to Repairing Apartheid Damage It is appropriate that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) final report is delivered to the President of South Africa on Human Rights Day because we must reverse the erosion of the human rights discourse in addressing social and economic injustices, Jubilee South Africa said today in a statement welcoming the report. The unresolved TRC issue is accountability for reparations for apartheid human rights violations. For more than four years, Jubilee South Africa's Apartheid Debt and Reparations Campaign has been calling on the multinational banks and businesses that aided and abetted the apartheid state in its criminal activities to acknowledge their role in apartheid and to repair the damage that their profiteering made possible. However, the corporations have refused to take the call seriously. The victims of human rights abuses under apartheid therefore filed legal complaints against those corporations for apartheid reparations. Today, we call on the corporations to respect the rule of international human rights law by making a commitment to reparations for the victims of apartheid. Reparations must include individual compensation for the victims of severe human rights violations and social programmes for the reconstruction and development of communities left impoverished by apartheid. In the spirit of Truth and Reconciliation, we reaffirm our commitment to the future of the victims of apartheid and demand transparency and accountability from private corporations that were complicit in apartheid. For more information and comment please contact Jubilee South Africa spokesperson Neville Gabriel at cell. +27 83 449 3934 or Jubilee South Africa chairperson MP Giyose at cell. +27 82 350 0361. Email: ljohnson@sacbc.org.za
posted by Brandon at 4:32 PM
Thursday, March 20, 2003
20 MARCH 2003 Contact person :Ike Tlholwe 011 403-4098 0834550444 (South Africa) MESSAGE OF HOPE TO VICTIMS We confirm and are in agreement with the theme of the inter-faith service planned for the 21st March at St Albans Cathedral in Pretoria .It is indeed a new beginning in the fight to keep hope alive .In the spirit which we believe the Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act was conceived in ,we pledge our support to the process of payment of reparations to victims of gross human rights abuse that have thus far been identified. We agree with and commend the TRC commissioners on the work done in the compilation of the 22 000 case summaries and other parts of the volume prepared for handing over on the 21st March . Victims ,their families and communities are urged to stay strong in the knowledge of the justness of their claims to payment . Whilst acknowledging the complexity of the process that the government is faced with we urge that inefficiencies be stripped out and only value-adding elements be given a place in an expedited process . We take this opportunity to pledge all logistical and information support to the process of the reparations part of the healing of the nation . We furthermore take the opportunity to announce that we are hard at work finalizing our database of victims throughout the length and breadth of the country , both identified by the TRC and those left out .The cases that we and partner organizations have lodged in the United States against corporations which aided and abetted the apartheid criminal exploitation are well underway .
posted by Brandon at 12:21 AM
Wednesday, March 19, 2003
Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference Media Release 19 March 2003 Cardinal Napier Meets Foreign Minister in Switzerland The President of the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference (SACBC), Cardinal Wilfrid Napier, today met with the Swiss Foreign Minister, Ms Calmy-Rey, in Berne, Switzerland. The meeting addressed the current social, political, and economic situation in South Africa, including the campaign for apartheid debt cancellation and reparations from Swiss banks and businesses. Cardinal Napier is currently on a two-week visit to Switzerland at the invitation of the Catholic Church development agency Fastenopfer for the annual Swiss Lenten Campaign organised by the Swiss churches. The Cardinal will: + Address several church and public gatherings; + Meet civil society and government development agencies such as Fastenopfer, Swiss Inter-Church Aid, Bread for All, the Swiss Coalition of NGOs, the official Swiss Development Cooperation agency, and others; + Meet members of the Swiss parliament; + Meet church leaders from the Swiss Catholic Bishops' + Conference and other churches, and church structures such as Justice & Peace; + Meet government representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the State Secretariat for Foreign Economic Affairs; and + Give several media interviews. The Cardinal returns to South Africa on March 26th. For more information please contact Rev Efrem Tresoldi, SACBC Information Officer, or Neville Gabriel, at tel. +27 (0)12 323 6458. Liz Johnstone Coordinator Apartheid Debt and Reparations Task Team Jubilee South Africa Email: ljohnson@sacbc.org.za
posted by Brandon at 9:35 AM
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