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).
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.
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
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.
September 13, 2002
August 14, 2002
Ms. Pamela Foster
Coordinator
Halifax Initiative
153 Chapel Street, Suite 104
Ottawa, Ontario
K1N 1H5
Dear Ms. Foster,
This is in reply to your letter of July 11, 2002, regarding possible Export Development Canada (EDC) support for the Cernovoda Nuclear Power Plant, Unit Two.
Ms. Melanie Quevillon
Coordinator
NGO Working Group on the EDC
153 Chapel Street, Suite 104
Ottawa, ON K1N 1H5
Dear Ms. Quevillon
Thank you for your letter of May 9, 2002, in which you expressed concern about the involvement of Export Development Canada (EDC) in the Ralco Hydroelectric Dam project in Chile.
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.
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?
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.