CPTnet
10 March 2005

IRAQ INVITATION TO PRAY AND FAST: 17 March 2005, "Burden of debt"

The Christian Peacemaker Team (CPT) in Baghdad, Iraq invites you to join
with us every Tuesday for a day of prayer, fasting and action that will
continue until Easter week. Participate as you are led either by fasting
(the team will do a bread and water fast) and/or joining us in a time of
prayer. At 9AM Eastern Standard Time (1400GMT) the team will gather for an
hour of focused prayer. You are invited to join for the entire hour or for
as much time as you can. Please also note the Action Steps connected with
each week's sacred passage. The CPT Iraq team asks that you take the
suggested action between Tuesday and Thursday so that we can be working
together.

We also created a web page where people can post reflections that occur
during their time of prayer. You will find a link to the website at the end
of the release.

Tuesday, 15 March 2005 Day of Prayer and Fasting: "Burden of debt"
(Leviticus 25:10)

"This year of jubilee you shall make sacred by proclaiming liberty in the
land for all its inhabitants."

Jubilee years, which the ancient Israelites proclaimed as part of God's law,
granted freedom to slaves, forgiveness of debts, and return of land to its
original owners. This practice helped to preserve the society's social and
economic equilibrium by preventing the extremes of wealth and poverty from
polarizing the community.

Today, Iraq is one of many nations groaning beneath the burden of impossible
debts. During the 1980s, many Western nations, including the U.S. and Great
Britain, made loans to support Saddam Hussein's military spending in the war
against Iran. In legal terms, such debts can be written off as "odious
debts," because 1) they were the personal debts of a particular regime, 2)
they were contracted without the consent of the people and were not spent in
the people's interests (i.e. Saddam Hussein spent most of the loans on
state and military oppression), and 3) the creditors were aware of what was
happening with loans they provided.

Iraq's total debt is within the range 95-153 billion dollars. In addition,
Iraq has been paying and must still pay reparation claims from the 1990
invasion of Kuwait. A UN Compensation Commission has awarded almost 50
billion dollars to corporations, governments, and individuals. Iraq has
paid almost 19 billion dollars of this, at a time when the country is
desperately in need of funds for its own reconstruction. The most recent
payment was on January 13, 2005, and recipients included companies from
America, Britain, France and Germany.

Even the Paris Club deal in Fall 2004, which promised up to 80% debt
forgiveness for Iraq, comes with mandatory International Monetary Fund (IMF)
conditions -- such as privatization of public utilities, ending food
rations & fuel subsidies and restricting salaries & pensions--which could
further exacerbate the poverty and instability in Iraq. Plus, Iraq would
still be burdened with 25 billion dollars in debt.

Since these debts were "odious debts" to begin with, the people of Iraq
should not have to pay. Iraq's debt should be written off completely, in
the spirit of Jubilee that we find in the Mosaic Law.*

ACTION STEPS:

1. Budget one hour this week to visit the website of Jubilee Iraq, a
nonprofit organization advocating debt forgiveness for Iraq.
(www.jubileeiraq.org)

2. Choose and follow one of their suggested action steps to respond to
Iraq's debt crisis.

*All statistical information from this post was taken from Jubilee Iraq at
www.jubileeiraq.org.

Website for posting now available: CPT in Iraq has begun a web log found at
http://prayerandactionforiraq.blogspot.com.

To post a comment on our web log, follow these steps: 1) Scroll down to
the bottom of the posting you wish to comment on. 2) Click on the place
that shows the number of comments made on the posting. 3) Scroll to the
bottom of that page and click where is says, "Post a comment."