Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, May 28, 1993                   TAG: 9305280189
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LIBREVILLE, GABON                                LENGTH: Short

JACKSON: AFRICA OWED REPARATIONS

"They no longer use bullets and ropes; they use the World Bank and the IMF," Jackson told a five-day summit of 11 African heads of state and U.S. black leaders that began Sunday.

The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, the major international lending institutions, help developing countries reform their economies.

Jackson said white Western governments demand democratic reforms in developing African countries. But he said that the stringent economic reforms imposed by the international lending institutions that the governments back prevent Africa from pushing ahead with democratic changes.

He echoed the comments of some of the more than 1,000 African-American conference delegates during four days of the African-American Summit. Among them are Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, Virginia Gov. Douglas Wilder, Coretta Scott King and actor Denzel Washington.

Delegates asked for slave reparations in the form of debt relief for African nations, whose collective debt stands at $255 billion.

"The slave trade was the first substantial U.S. foreign trade policy," Jackson said.

Jackson asked the World Bank and the IMF to help make Africa's currencies convertible on the world market. He did not elaborate. Individual nations decide whether their money is convertible.