Letter to Canadian IMF Director Re: Proposed New Debt - December 18, 2002

Letter to Canadian IMF Director on Proposed New Debt Restructuring Mechanism

Mr. Ian Bennett
IMF Executive Director for Canada
Fax: 202-623-4712
Re.: IMF board meeting on SDRM on December 18, 2002

Dear Mr. Bennett,

On December 18, the Board will discuss the IMF’s most recent version of an insolvency procedure for states, labelled the “Sovereign Debt Restructuring Mechanism” (SDRM).

CSO letter to World Bank President re CAO report on Bulyanhulu mine

December 12, 2002

Mr. James Wolfensohn
President
The World Bank Group
1818 H Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20433 U.S.A.

Dear Mr. Wolfensohn,

We are writing to express dismay at the recent Compliance Advisor/Ombudsman report on the MIGA guarantee of the Bulyanhulu gold mine and to request your urgent intervention.

The CAO is a mechanism that non-governmental organizations have pushed hard to establish. Your personal support for the initiative played a major role in ensuring that the CAO was established. As all parties have observed, the CAO's effectiveness rests on the respect and trust it enjoys amongst the public: integrity, transparency, even¬handedness and thoroughness are thus critical to all aspects of its work.

Letter to Canadian Fund Managers Re: Rosia Montana - November 8, 2002

November 8, 2002

Dear Fund Manager:

I am writing to call your attention to the controversy surrounding Gabriel Resources Ltd. and their proposed open cast gold mine in Romania. I am writing on behalf of the Halifax Initiative, a Canadian coalition of non-governmental organizations working together to monitor international financial institutions and their projects. Our members include Oxfam Canada, West Coast Environmental Law Association and Kairos Canada. We are also working closely with a coalition of people in Romania, actively opposing the proposed mine.
 
Your company may be considering investing in this project or may have already done so.  We are writing to highlight the risks involved in making such an investment in Gabriel Resources and the Rosia Montana mine.
 
(1) Commercial Risk

Letter to EDC President Re: International Nickel Company (INCO) in Indonesia - October 23, 2002

Mr. Ian Gillespie
President
Export Development Canada
151 O'Connor
Ottawa Ontario
KlA 1K3

23 October, 2002

Dear Mr. Gillespie,

It is with grave concern that we write you today regarding potential EDC support for expanding projects of the International Nickel Company (INCO) in Indonesia.

As you may be aware, the history of INCO's mining activity in Indonesia is not characterized by consensual relations with affected communities nor by respect for basic environmental standards.

Letter to Minister Manley Re: Southern Africa food crisis - July 19, 2002

The Honourable John Manley
Minister of Finance House of Commons
Ottawa, K1A 0A6

July 19, 2002

Dear Minister Manley,

Southern Africa is facing its worst food crisis in over a decade, with millions of people facing starvation. The UN World Food Programme has launched an emergency appeal for assistance, and Canada is responding promptly and generously.

As development, human rights, church and environmental organizations, our concern extends beyond the need for emergency aid. We are dismayed to see millions of dollars continue to be taken out of the region by creditors like the World Bank.

Letter to EDC President Re: Cernavoda 2 - July 11, 2002

July 11, 2002

Mr. Ian Gillespie
President
Export Development Canada
151 O’Connor
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 1K3

Dear Mr. Gillespie,

We are writing to urge you to refrain from extending support for the Cernavoda 2 nuclear reactor in Romania. There are key questions that remain outstanding on this project, questions that need to be answered before a public financial institution approves its support.

Question#1: Is Romania in violation of the Espoo Convention?

Letter to World Bank Re: Forests Policy - June 10, 2002

The World Bank has released its long awaited draft policy on forests. It severely weakens the existing Operational (OP) Policy on Forests of 1993. Environmental group pressure led to the current policy that bans Bank funding of logging in primary moist tropical forests. Over the past several years, the World Bank has sought to resume financing of "sustainable forest management" activities in the World's dwindling primary forests, particularly in the tropics.

Letter signed on by NGOs.

Mr. James D. Wolfensohn
President
The World Bank
1818 H Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20433

Re: Draft Operational Policy on Forests

Dear Mr. Wolfensohn,

We are writing to you to express our dismay and rejection of the current draft OP on Forests which was placed on the World Bank's website on June 10, 2002.

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