Clinton frames international debt relief as moral imperative

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bill Clinton said Thursday the United States has a moral responsibility to help well-meaning poor nations get out from under crushing debt, and asked religious leaders to help him lobby Congress for more money.

"If you want people to organize themselves well, run themselves well, and build a future, we've got to do this," Clinton said at his annual White House breakfast gathering for leaders from all faiths.

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Clinton listed Latin American and African countries where he said responsible governments are making good-faith efforts to improve lives but face a debt burden largely incurred by previous, corrupt regimes.

The debt payments rob those countries of capital that could be invested in education, health care and other improvements, Clinton said, echoing an argument made by leaders of many poor nations along with Pope John Paul II.

"I think it is a moral issue," Clinton said. "How can we sit here on the biggest mountain of wealth we have ever accumulated, that any nation in all of human history has ever accumulated, and not" share that wealth? he continued.

"We're not just throwing money away. We're only giving this money to people who not only promise to, but prove they are able to, take all the savings and invest it in the human needs of their people."

Congress largely approved Clinton's request for money to forgive some debts directly owed to the United States. Congress balked at underwriting loans funded by several countries through the International Monetary Fund or other international lenders.

In May, Uganda became the first poor country to qualify for millions of dollars in debt relief under a program called the Highly Indebted Poor Countries initiative.

Clinton and leaders of other rich nations support the debt relief program for 40 of the world's poorest nations, most of them in Africa, while critics say the program is slow and doesn't provide enough relief.

Rich nations' response to international debt was a theme of protests during last year's World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle, and at this year's International Monetary Fund and World Bank gatherings in Washington.

Clinton noted such dissent and said he "doesn't buy it."

"I think that it is very much in the interest of America to have big, large-scale debt relief," Clinton said, "if the countries that get the relief are committed to, and held accountable to, good governance and using the money not to build up military power, but to invest in the human needs of their people."

Copyright 2000 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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