World Bank President accused of misleading statements

By Melissa Bryant
Reporter-SKNVibes.com

World Bank President Robert Zoellick

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – THE international community has called on World Bank President Robert Zoellick to clarify remarks he made about Haitian debt cancellation during a visit to the country last week.

According to Caribbean Net News, Zoellick reportedly told journalists in Port-au-Prince that Haiti’s $1.7B debt was “half-forgiven” and promised that the rest of the debt could soon be cancelled. He also allegedly stated that $500M of Haiti’s debt had already been cancelled.

In fact, none of Haiti’s debt has yet been cancelled by the Bank, and in recent weeks Haitian debt cancellation was delayed by six months. Haiti stands to receive approximately $1.2B in debt cancellation, but only when it fulfils criteria established by the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative.

The only debt relief that Haiti has received so far under this scheme has been limited relief estimated by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as $19.8M on its debt service payments. Haiti’s budgeted debt service payments in 2008 have continued to be more than $1M every week.

“It’s already a scandal that the World Bank has put back Haiti’s debt relief by six months when it’s facing its worst humanitarian disaster in a century. But for the Bank’s President to come to the country and apparently mislead the Haitian people that money has been made available to help them is unforgivable,” said Nick Dearden, Director of the United Kingdom’s Jubilee Debt Campaign.

“Zoellick should be pressuring World Bank shareholders to cancel Haiti’s illegitimate debts immediately – instead he’s giving distressingly inaccurate reassurances that help is on its way,” He added.  

The call for a clarification from Zoellick comes as the United Nations reports that only 40 percent of the $10M called for in its appeal for Haiti has been pledged, let alone delivered.