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07/06/2004:

"Africa must not pay its debt"

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia - A top economic adviser to UN secretary-general Kofi Annan told African countries on Monday to refuse to pay their huge debts if rich countries did not cancel them.

American economist Jeffrey Sachs made the comment to a conference on hunger on the eve of a summit of the heads of state of the African Union (AU), which estimates sub-Saharan Africa has foreign debts of $201bn.

"The time has come to end this charade. The debts are unaffordable," said Sachs, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University and special adviser to Annan on global anti-poverty targets.

"If they won't cancel the debts I would suggest obstruction. You do it yourselves."
Full Article : news24.com