Sudan and the G20: What the World’s Richest Countries Can Do

BACKGROUND: SUDAN’S DEBT

Despite the boom period of the last decade in Sudan’s capitol Khartoum, the country’s external debt has risen from $15 billion to $34 billion – owed mostly to multi-lateral, Western, Chinese, Arab and Indian creditors.  Sudan’s external public debt – the second most in Africa – has increased from $13 billion in 1989 when President Omar al-Bashir engineered the coup that brought him to power. 

SUDAN’S DEBT IS ODIOUS DEBT

Debt is to be considered odious if a government has used these externally secured funds for personal interests or to oppress its own people. Sudan’s debt of the last twenty years has been contracted without public consent, and primarily spent – not for – but against the interests of the Sudanese people.  The same regime in Khartoum though that used international loans to finance civil war in the 1990s and genocide this decade now seeks a debt-relief package from its creditors to overcome its current financial challenges.

WHY SUDAN’S DEBT SHOULD NOT BE FORGIVEN

Instead of first changing its egregious behavior in Darfur, which would make international lenders more sympathetic to debt-relief requests, the Sudanese government continues to defy the international community by refusing to acknowledge past and ongoing human rights violations in the region, blocking humanitarian assistance and the deployment of the AU/UN peacekeeping force (UNAMID), and obstructing at every stage efforts to reach a peaceful resolution to the conflict. 

The Sudanese government has not convincingly shown that debt-relief would actually serve the interests of the its impoverished population. President Bashir and the National Congress Party (NCP) in Sudan continue to obstruct the full implementation of the North-South peace agreement and the 2005 Interim Constitution which includes a Bill of Rights. At every turn over the last five years, Bashir and the NCP have frustrated attempts to bring about true political and judicial reforms for all Sudanese. 

KHARTOUM’S RECENT APPEALS FOR DEBT FORGIVENESS

This summer the Sudanese government officially requested help from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in obtaining a debt-relief package from the international community.  In July, Japan wrote off $28 million in debt while NCP officials raised the issue with British officials on at least two occasions. David Shinn, former U.S. Ambassador to Ethiopia, in testimony before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, also recommended that the international community “begin the process of looking at Sudan’s debt, especially if Khartoum makes progress in ending the Darfur conflict.”

PRESIDENT OBAMA AND THE G-20: DON’T FORGIVE SUDAN’S DEBT

President Obama should lead the international community in making clear that any condition of debt-relief can happen only if Sudan makes proven and significant progress toward: peace in Darfur, the full implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), and significant structural reforms that fundamentally change the repressive systems in Sudan.  By adopting this approach, President Obama would be carrying out his inaugural offer to repressive regimes of extending a hand – but only to those willing to “unclench” their fists.

If the Sudanese government demonstrably changes its behavior to the benefit of all of Sudan’s people, the U.S. should lead efforts to facilitate a debt-relief package for Sudan with the international community…But if the Sudanese government fails to match its rhetoric for peace with proven action, then the U.S. should make it clear to Sudan that it will use its role at the IMF and World Bank, as well as its position in the Paris Club, to block any potential debt-relief package.