Major tsunami cash scandal feared

Looked into already posted...hope this isn't a dupe.

Fears that western nations will fail to honour large financial pledges towards relief and development for victims of the Indian Ocean tsunami in Asia and Africa are now growing, a Christian development agency analyst told Ekklesia today.

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According to a new Oxfam report due to be published this week, the United Nations humanitarian appeal for those areas hit by the Boxing Day tidal wave are still under-funded by 277 million US dollars, with only 723 million US dollars received out of a total pledged of one billion US dollars.

<snip>
British chancellor Gordon Brown, who has recently spoken of the Christian influence on his concern for Africa, is also under fire from development agencies for colluding with other rich nations in suspending repayments to poor creditor nations rather than wiping them out.

The concern is that interest payments will continue to debilitate the poorest after the debt moratorium ends. Brown is believed to want to go further than the Paris Club, but he is under pressure to conform from corporate interests.

Read it all here:
http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/content/news_syndication/article_050116aid.shtml

:kick: for today's readers re: Tsunami and US funding