MANY of the millions of pounds of debt owed to the UK by
developing countries were originally borrowed by repressive regimes
to pay for British-made arms, new government statistics
suggest.
The highest borrower, Indonesia, spent almost three-quarters of
loans totalling £853 million on defence equipment. Much of this
money was used by the dictator General Suharto to buy tanks and
aircraft. The former Foreign Secretary Robin Cook later admitted
that some of the British arms were used to quash civilian uprisings
in East Timor.
Another heavy borrower, Argentina, spent almost 40 per cent of
British loans on military hardware, including weapons later used in
the Falkland Islands invasion.
Figures released on Monday by UK Export Finance, the government
department that manages foreign debt, show that Britain is owed
nearly £1 billion by 20 countries. The figures do not include loans
already repaid.
"They reveal a past history of horrendous loans to dictators,"
Tim Jones, the policy officer at the Jubilee Debt Campaign, which
is pressing for a write-off of the debt of developing countries,
said. "People in these countries should not have to pay these
unjust debts. . . We have been calling for a long time for an audit
into this debt. The release of these figures is a step forward, and
something the Government has previously said could not be done.
We're now pushing them to hold a full audit, where the details of
each project are released. . .
"Vince Cable should implement Liberal Democrat policy and hold a
full audit into these debts, to find out what the real impact of
the projects was in the countries concerned. The Government should
then cancel all those debts that are unjust, which did not benefit
the people who are now repaying them.
The loans include £5 million lent to Saddam Hussein, and £12
million used by Zimbabwe to buy Land Rovers, which, Amnesty
International later said, were used in attacks against opposition
activists.
In his annual speech at the Guildhall, on Monday, the Prime
Minister said that he made "no apology" for helping Britain's
defence industry sell abroad. During an export drive in the Gulf
last week, he was criticised for backing sales to states in the
region that have poor human-rights records. But he insisted that
Britain had the toughest rules on arms exports in the world.