[afro-nets] IMF in Astonishing Attack on Democracy

[Claudio Schuftan <claudio@hcmc.netnam.vn>]

IMF in Astonishing Attack on Democracy
--------------------------------------

Draft Benn meeting minutes

IMF in Astonishing Attack on Democracy
Parliamentarians Removed from G24 Ministers Meeting

In an extraordinary demonstration of how the IMF habitually bul-
lies poor countries, and of its opposition to democratic scru-
tiny of its own activities, senior IMF staff threw two Members
of Parliament (MPs) out of the meeting of the Group of 24 Devel-
oping Country Ministers on the 23 September 2005. Dr. Dradjad
Wibowo MP from Indonesia and Hon. Mohammed Jagri MP from Ghana
had been invited to attend the meeting by the G24 Secretariat to
present a petition calling for democratic oversight of World
Bank and IMF policies, and to question World Bank President Paul
Wolfowitz and IMF Managing Director Rodrigo Rato. The Interna-
tional Parliamentarians Petition (IPP) has been signed by over
1100 MPs from 55 parliaments.

The MPs, who were sitting next to the Saudi Foreign Minister at
the time, were removed on the orders of the IMF's parliamentary
liaison officer Patrick Cricillo, and Mr. Parmeshwa Ramlogan, an
advisor to Mr. Rato. The IMF tried to justify their actions on
the grounds that they believed the MPs did not have permission
to attend the meetings, but they did not even check with the G24
Chair, Mr. Paul Toungui first. When his staff informed him about
what had happened, Mr. Toungui rightly ensured the MPs were al-
lowed back in, but it was too late for them to deliver their pe-
tition or raise the issue with Rato and Wolfowitz. It has also
since emerged that the IMF had been putting pressure on the G24
not to allow the MPs in to start with.

This action shows once again that all the IMF's talk of country
ownership and participation in decision-making processes is
nothing more than empty rhetoric. For senior IMF staff to treat
elected representatives of citizens of poor countries with such
contempt exposes an astonishing disrespect for the sovereignty
of national parliaments. To now pretend they didn't know they
were MPs is an insult to our intelligence.

World Development Movement
mailto:Martin@wdm.org.uk
http://www.wdm.org.uk