Jubilee 2000 stages "Drop Debt" protest in Japan Updated 7:04 AM ET July 6, 2000 By Elaine Lies TOKYO, July 6 (Reuters) - Chanting "Drop the Debt," hundreds of demonstrators marched past Japanese government offices on Thursday, urging rich nations to speed up efforts to relieve the burden their loans have heaped on poorer countries.

Led by international debt relief organisation Jubilee 2000, the protest took place two days before finance ministers of the Group of Seven (G7) rich nations and Russia meet in the southern Japanese city of Fukuoka.

Among a crowd estimated 300-strong by organisers, 13 children carried one-metre (3-ft) high symbols of Japan's yen currency on their backs to represent a total of 13 children said to die every minute in the 40 poorest countries.

They were accompanied by demonstrators dressed in mourning black, ringing bells and beating drums. "Despite the fact the G7 rich nations have all agreed to cancel some debt, not one country has received debt relief yet," said Yoko Kitazawa, representative of Jubilee 2000 Japan.

"We have demanded that Japan, as host of the G8 summit this year, push for full implementation of the debt relief programme for these nations," she said. The summit will be held on Japan's southern island of Okinawa from July 21 to 23.

"Children are not responsible for this debt, and they don't benefit, yet they pay for it with their lives." She said the yen symbols were to show how "the yen crucified children." Jubilee says those children die as poor nations must repay debt ahead of spending on development or medical care.

JAPAN UNDER FIRE The G7 agreed at a meeting in Germany last year to write off $100 billion in debt owed by some 40 of the world's poorest countries, or Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC), but that initiative has stalled badly.

Debt relief pledges by U.S. President Bill Clinton were blocked by a budget row with Congress, while the European Union (EU) delayed releasing unspent development funds earmarked for relief until it saw concrete action from Washington.

Critics also charged Japan -- the world's biggest creditor nation -- at first refused to write off debt because of "moral hazard" concerns, meaning it feared countries would run up huge debts again or spend the money saved from debt payments on arms.

But at a United Nations meeting on poverty in Geneva last week, Japan said it would write off its outstanding official development assistance (ODA) loans to the HIPCs.

On Thursday, demonstrators paused for five minutes in front of the Finance Ministry to chant, ring bells and bang gongs.

"The Finance Ministry holds the purse strings," said John Merryfield, one of the protest organisers. "We want to shame them into action."

"People that I've talked to say that providing debt relief to these nations will hurt Japan when it needs to spend money on its own problems in this economically difficult time," said Miyoko Ishio, a grandmother in her late 60s.

"But poverty in Japan and in Africa is a totally different thing." Japan's outstanding ODA loans to HIPCs stood at $9.7 billion as of March last year, according to the Foreign Ministry. It granted $15.4 billion in ODAs in 1999 and had previously raised its debt relief ceiling on non-ODA loans to 100 percent from 90 percent.

The total of non-ODA loans to HIPCs stands at around $1.3 billion.

Japan Catholic Council for Justice and Peace 2-10-10, Shiomi, Koto-ku, Tokyo 135-8585 Japan Tel.03-5632-4444, Fax.03-5632-7920 E-mail. jpj@jade.dti.ne.jp URL. http://www.jade.dti.ne.jp/~jpj/