Does the IMF think that bloody crackdowns on demonstrators in Sudan are irrelevant in assessing Khartoum’s economic performance? This is the question Eric Reeves asks in his post, referring to the October 12 press release from the IMF.
Reeves explains: ‘[In a press release] speaking to relief from the gargantuan external debt accrued by the National Islamic Front/National Congress Party regime over the past 24 years—the IMF failed to mention, even indirectly, the more than 300 who have been killed, hundreds who have been injured, and more than one thousand who have been arrested—even as this brutal repression comes in response to the austerity measures imposed by the IMF and which, given Khartoum’s priorities, translated into the lifting of subsidies for fuel on September 22.
Eric Reeves concludes: ‘It is difficult to tell here whether cynicism or mendacity is greater, or even distinguishable. In any event, the message to Khartoum’s génocidaires is clear: “do what you must to meet our benchmarks.”‘ Read his post here.
Girifna doesn’t mince words either, as they write in an open letter to Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, published on their website:
Ms. Largarde, we are sure that if this was during or after World War II, the IMF would not be sitting on the same table with Hitler or Mussolini. Yet, today you are openly negotiating with Africa’s Hitler. Omer El Bashir’s government has been directly responsible for the killing and displacement of the highest number of civilians in the African continent’s contemporary history.
Whatever loans the IMF gives the NCP will not be used to lift Sudanese citizens out of poverty. They will be used to oppress us and ensure that the regime stays in power. We hence ask that you stop all loans to the genocidal regime in Khartoum.
On his side and with no surprise, the Sudanese finance and national economy minister Ali Mahmood Abdel-Rasool said the meetings with IMF were “good” and “positive“…
