President Mwanawasa today left Cannes for London after attending the 24th France-Africa summit which closed yesterday.

Mr. Mwanawasa left aboard a British Airways plane from Nice International Airport at 14:55 hours Zambian time.

He was accompanied by First Lady Maureen, Foreign Affairs minister Mundia Sikatana, his Special Assistant for Press and Public Relations John Musukuma and PrincipalPrivate Secretary Alfred Chipoya.

Mr. Mwanawasa was seen off at the airport by Community Development and Social Services minister Catherine Namugala, Zambia’s ambassador to France Ian Sikazwe andother senior Zambian and French government officials.

The President told ZANIS at Hilton hotel in Cannes shortly before departure that he would make a stop-over in London for a scheduled medical check up.

Mr. Mwanawasa said he has had hectic schedule before and after the tripartite elections last year and his doctors felt it was time for him to undergo another thorough medical review in London.

The President assured the nation that he was enjoying good health and ably discharging his duties in the high office of the presidency.

Mr. Mwanawasa returns home on February 24.

ZANIS

Meanwhile, President Mwanawasa has called on Zambians to make sacrifices for the development of the country.

Briefing the Zambian media in Cannes on the just ended France-Africa summit, Mr.Mwanawasa said Zambians should not be carried away by the international goodwill being shown by its cooperating partners such France.

He said Zambians should work hard and not depend on outsiders to develop the country.

Mr. Mwanawasa said the summit sent a message to the world that what Africa needed was foreign investment that added value and created jobs for its people.

The President said much as he appreciated aid directed at governance and other social mobilization programmes through non-governmental organisations, only government and its institutions had the capacity to bring about more meaningful and
equitable development for its people.

“The trend by some Western governments to channel development aid through civil society organizations fail to produce the desired results as they are not accountable to government.” said Mr. Mwanawasa.

On raw materials which was one of the thematic topics of the summit, Mr. Mwanawasa called on western countries to emulate the approach of China by investing in Africa’s capacity to process its raw materials into finished products.

Mr. Mwanawasa said by exporting cheap raw materials to the industrialised countries,Africa was exporting jobs and wealth for its people thereby perpetuating poverty and underdevelopment on the continent.

The current trend where industrialized countries import cheap raw materials from Africa and later export expensive finished products to Africa will not do because the continent needed tangible development projects which have a bearing on the living standards of the people.

The president underscored the fact that Africa’s resources, its people and leadership were indispensable in the overall well being and advancement human kind.

The summit was held in the French Cannes from 15-16 February and was attended by 40 African Heads of State and Government.

Government says the Vulture Funds, that exist on the international monetary scene, should not be sustained because they exploit poor countries. Chef Government Spokesperson Vernon Mwaanga said the Vulture Funds have been used for somtime to exploit poor countries. Mr. Mwaanga said Zambia’s liability to pay the claimed debt is yet to be defined by the court hearing scheduled to take place on on March 9, 2007.

Mr. Mwaanga explained that the claim against Zambia arose from a debt incurred from  the Romanian government for the supply of agricultural equipment in 1979.

“The claim against the Zambian Government arose from a debt incurred from Romanian Government in 1979 for the suplly of tractors, agricultural machines, vehicles, spare parts and training of personel,” Mr. Mwaanga said.

Vulture Funds, as defined by the IMF are companies that buy off debt of poor nations cheaply, when it is about to be written off and then sues for full value of debt plus interest.

Zambia was unable to keep up the payment, a sutiation that resulted in negotiations with Romania and subsequent liquidation of the debt to US$3 million in 1999.

But before Zambia could pay for the US$ 3 million debt, Donegal International bought off the debt for less tham US$4 million and then claimed US$42 million from Zambia.

Mr. Mwaanga explained that in 2003 entered into a settlement agreement with Donegal, the assignment he said was tainted by corruption.

He, therefore, said English Court was then expected to determine wether the
settlement agreement was duly signed on behalf of Zambia and the extent of liability  involved.

Mr Mwaanga noted that Donegal was seeking to enforce a claim against Zambia for US$55 million despite having bought it from Romania eight years ago for only US$3.2 million.

Mr. Mwaanga has since thanked the co-operating partners for financially supportingthe Task Force on Corruption which has been responsible for  contracting the LondonLawyers to act on the matter.

A “vulture fund” won a  court case against  Zambia on Thursday. The British High Court ruled that Donegal International, based in the British Virgin Islands, had the right to receive some payments for Zambian sovereign debt that it bought at a heavy discount. The debt, originally owed by Zambia to Romania, was bought by Donegal in 1999 for less than $4m. It emerged that Donegal  was seeking $55m in payment for the full value of the debt, higher than the $42m earlier thought, after a “settlement   agreement” in 2003 between Donegal and Zambia. Zambia had claimed in court that the debt was invalid as there was evidence  that Donegal’s local agent had bribed civil servants to pass the debt to Donegal rather than allowing Zambia to pay it off  at a heavily discounted rate to Romania. Zambia ceased making payments under the settlement agreement in 2004.

Issuing judgment, Mr Justice Andrew Smith rejected the contention of bribery. The judgment of how much should be paid
to Donegal was postponed but Mr Justice Smith said that the full claim was unlikely to be justified.

The high court ruled that a claim against Zambia by the US company Donegal International, owned by US citizen Michael Sheehan, for debts incurred by the impoverished southern African nation more than a decade ago, was lawful.

Zambia was represented by the prime minister’s brother, William Blair QC.

Donegal is claiming about $55m, a sum representing a 1,400 per cent return on its initial investment,  from Zambia but it is thought this will be reduced to around $20m when the parties meet in court again next month and the judge, Justice Andrew Smith, decides how much interest Zambia has to pay.

He ordered that Zambian assets in the UK be frozen in the meantime.

Oxfam and the Jubilee Debt Campaign said that Donegal – a vulture fund registered in the British Virgin Islands – should not accept any of the money because Zambia, one of the poorest countries in the world, has qualified for debt relief and desperately needs the money.

“It is clear that while the actions of Donegal International were not strictly illegal, they were immoral,” said Adrian Lovett, director of campaigns and communications at Oxfam. “Donegal should not take the money.”

Trisha Rogers, director of Jubilee Debt Campaign, said: “There is a clear need for a fair, comprehensive and binding framework for dealing with poor country debt which will ensure that commercial creditors will never again have the chance to profit in this way. ”

Donegal bought the Zambian debt, with a face value of around $30m, from Romania in 1999, for less than $4m. Zambia had run up the debt, mainly for agricultural machinery, during the Cold War.

Zambia approved the Donegal purchase at the time and later agreed to pay Donegal $15m for it.

The judge had little choice but to say the contract was binding, although he is thought unlikely to allow Donegal’s claim that interest and costs have inflated the amount to $55m.

The amount claimed by Donegal is more than the total debt relief Zambia is due to receive as agreed at the G8 meeting in Gleneagles in 2005.

Gordon Brown has condemned vulture funds and a Treasury spokesman said: “By depleting the resources of developing countries’ governments, these companies reduce the funds available for schooling and hospital treatment. This behaviour is socially irresponsible.”

Oxfam and Jubilee urged the chancellor to use his influence as chair of the International Monetary Fund’s key decision-making committee to make sure that new regulations are devised that prevent private companies from bypassing international debt rules and pursuing debts from very poor countries.

The judge did not let Donegal off lightly. “I have been driven to conclude that they were at times being deliberately evasive and even dishonest,” he said.

Mr Sheehan was “not merely careless but cavalier in presenting his evidence”.

He pointed out that delays had been caused to the trial because “put at its kindest, some of Donegal’s witnesses were less than candid”.

BBC’s Newsnight broadcast a report on Wednesday night purporting to show an email from Mr Sheehan offering $2m to the then president Frederick Chiluba’s favourite charity when Donegal bought the debt.

Mr Blair called it a “bribe” but Mr Sheehan told Newsnight it was a “charitable initiative”.

The US Justice Department later asked the BBC to hand over the documents to assess whether Mr Sheehan, a resident of Washington DC, had committed a crime under the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

A 35-year-old woman of Mukankamana village in Mkushi district is nursing injuries after falling from a Musuku tree she had climbed in search of a mobile communication network.

Astridah Phiri climbed the tree in an effort to capture the network to enable her communicate to her spouse who was on a business venture in Lusaka.

Ms. Phiri told ZANIS that people in the area could only clearly communicate through
mobile phones once they climbed trees or hills.

Kamimbya Ward C Councilor, Dennis Mwansa appealed to mobile communications service
providers to extend better services to rural areas.

Mr. Mwansa challenged MTN, CELTEL and CEL Z to connect the area to avoid such
incidences in future.

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