244/YOUR MONEY OR YOUR LIFE!In general, the Third World debt should be totally and uncondi
tionally cancelled. This debt has already been paid back in many
different ways.
Jean-Claude Willame has raised an interesting question that
tackles the problem from a political and moral standpoint. 'Is this not
in many ways an "odious" debt?' He reminds us of a principle of inter
national law defined in the 1920s:
If a despotic regime borrows money, not in accordance with the
needs and interests of the country but in order to strengthen its
hand and put down resistance from its people, the debt is odious for
the whole of the said country's population. Such a debt is not
binding on the nation; it is a debt owed by a regime, a personal debt
owed by those that took it on. As a result, such a debt disappears
along with the regime to whom the money was loaned. (Willame,
1986)The Expropriation of the Foreign Assets of Dictators
Turning the clock back to zero is one thing. Ensuring that developing
countries have the means to leave their problems behind them, quite
another.
Five, six, seven billion dollars, the equivalent of the country's
external debt. During the National Conference, there was a lot of
heated debate in Kinshasa and any number of guesses as to the size
of the president's fortune. Everyone quoted the World Bank
estimate that the assets of Zairian citizens abroad totalled more
than 10 billion dollars, while the country's foreign debt was less
than nine billion dollars. (Braeckman, 1992)Such figures are well known and must also be taken into account
when determining who is responsible for what. The colossal fortunes
of Mobutu and other dictators were built through outright theft from
the people of their countries. Confiscating these fortunes held abroad
- mostly in the countries of the North with the complicity of the banks
and even some governments - goes hand-in-hand with cancelling
these countries' debts. Indeed, there can be no question of letting
dictators off scot-free. Tough measures must be implemented to freeze
and expropriate their assets, to eliminate in one fell swoop their