Madam, - According to the US Treasury Secretary, John Snow, the Iraqi people cannot "be saddled with" debts run up by Saddam Hussein. Implicit in this statement is the fact that loans made to dictators are "odious debt" and that a new regime has no obligation to repay these.
Can we presume that the same principle will now also be extended to the debt run up by other former repressive regimes - in Argentina, South Africa, the Philippines, etc? - Yours, etc.,
JEAN SOMERS,
Co-ordinator,
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Debt and Development
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