G8 summit: letter from Okinawa

Dear Friends I am writing from Okinawa on the first day of the G8 summit, where the leaders of the seven richest nations will gather to discuss issues that have an impact on the poor worldwide. Initially, the Japanese government refused to have debt on the agenda, saying that the crisis was resolved at Cologne. However, as a result of your campaigning, one of the issues on their agenda will be debt. Campaigners here in Okinawa expressed their total dismay yesterday at lack of progress on debt cancellation. More than a year after the G8 leaders last met in Cologne, not one country has received debt cancellation and only nine have had partial relief. Yet there are fears that the leaders may merely confirm decisions taken last year and not examine why so little action has been taken or make new initiatives to deliver urgent debt cancellation. As Bono writes in the UK newspaper, the Guardian today: "If the world's leaders are indeed to miss this opportunity for a historic act of Grace, then their lack of leadership will echo loudly in the void of a new millennium, robbed of the only thing which might have given it meaning." So please log onto the website today and send a final message to the G8 as they meet in Okinawa. And email your friends to ask them to do the same. It is not too late to demonstrate the overwhelming demand for debt cancellation which is being voiced to the G8 nations throughout the world. Throughout the weekend, the website www.summitwatch.net will feature constant updates from Okinawa and from summitwatch events around the world. By logging on, you can be connected up in a virtual human chain of events that are taking place in every continent this weekend in support of the campaign. Thank you for your support Nick Buxton Jubilee 2000 UK