The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr George Carey, is calling on the West to cancel Africa's growing burden of debt.

In an address to the Organisation of African Unity and the United Nation's Economic Commission for Africa while on a week-long trip to Ethiopia, Dr Carey criticises the West for failing to take responsibility in relieving massive debts which total over $200bn in sub-Saharan Africa.

He says the millennium should be a symbolic opportunity for governments and all the world's faiths to come together and create a new hope for the continent.

In his address, called 'Chains around Africa', he criticises the World Bank and Western governments for not doing enough to relieve the debt and warns them not to go back on promises on debt relief to Mozambique.

The demand for repayments, he adds, is condemning them to another form of slavery with each new baby born owing some $350.

He adds that for every one dollar given in aid to the developing world, three dollars are demanded in interest.

Jubilee theme

It is the Archbishop's most outspoken message on the debt crisis to date and shows him taking the stage alongside Pope John Paul II who has made the biblical theme of Jubilee - cancellation of debts - a central theme of his ministry for the millennium.

But according to the BBC's Religious Affairs Correspondent, Dr Carey in taking up the Jubilee theme strikes a more hopeful chord.

The Archbishop says the dawning of the new millennium is a critical turning point, described in the bible as a great moment of hope.

He urges "all people of faith" to join with creditor governments and those in Africa to seize the moment to make a new, more positive beginning for the continent.
 

Back to top | BBC News Home | BBC Homepage	©