U.N Adviser says Africa should refuse to pay "Unaffordable" Debts by UN Wire 4:11pm 7th Jul, 2004   July 6, 2004    Jeffrey Sachs, special adviser to U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan on anti-poverty targets, yesterday said Africa's heavy debt burden was untenable and urged the continent not to pay its debts if rich countries refused to cancel them.    The U.S. economist, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, spoke at a conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on hunger on the eve of a summit of the heads of state of the African Union, which estimates sub-Saharan Africa's foreign debt at $201 billion.    "The time has come to end this charade.  The debts are unaffordable," Sachs said.  "If they won't cancel the debts I would suggest obstruction.  You do it yourselves."    He also called on the developed world to double aid to Africa to $120 billion annually and meet commitments made in 1970 to spend at least 0.7 percent of gross domestic product on grants and loans.    The 53-member African Union is to discuss this week taking a lead in peacekeeping on the continent.  AU Director of Peace and Security Sam Ibok announced yesterday that the organization would send a 300-strong armed protection force soon to Sudan's embattled Darfur region (Associated Press/News24.com, July 6).
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