‘Vulture capitalists’ exploiting poor Congo

This video from Britain is called Jubilee Debt Campaign: Toxic Debt.

From daily The Morning Star in Britain:

Vulture fund ‘picks the bones’ of DR Congo

Sunday 27 May 2012

Debt campaigners are set to demonstrate outside the Supreme Court [in London this Monday] … against a bunch of vulture capitalists trying to pick £64 million off the bones of the war-ravaged Democratic Republic of Congo.

New York-based hedge fund FG Hemisphere is claiming the massive sum on a debt it bought for just £2m, the Jubilee Debt Campaign said.

The debt originated in the 1980s, when the Yugoslavian government lent money to dictator Mobutu Sese Seko to win contracts for its businesses.

The case is being heard under Jersey law, before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.

“Vulture” funds specialise in buying the debts of countries in financial difficulty and then sue for the full amount once other creditors have written off debts and the country is solvent again.

The Democratic Republic of Congo is the poorest country in the world according to the UN.

Jubilee Debt campaign director Nick Dearden said the amounts being claimed on the “odious” loan were “extortionate.

“It is outrageous that the Jersey government has allowed this appalling case to be brought.”

The protest will take place at 10.30am in Parliament Square.

What an insult to interesting and useful vulture birds to compare them to those disgusting human “1%” profiteers.