Global Policy Forum

By Darlene Superville

Washington - Thousands of people clasped hands to form a human chain at the Capitol yesterday in a show of solidarity with countries they say are trapped in poverty because of the loans they must repay to US-based world lending institutions. Organizers of the event say they want the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to forgive billions of dollars in loan payments. The countries could then spend that money on education, health care, and other urgent social needs, they argue.

''I think everybody deserves a second chance,'' said Dan Driscoll-Shaw, national coordinator for Jubilee2000/USA, a coalition of religious, environmental, and labor groups.

The World Bank and the IMF already have a debt-relief program that will forgive some $27 billion owed by poor countries, including Uganda, Bolivia, and Mozambique, which recently suffered through severe flooding. But the rally's organizers say they want the program to be expanded. ''The countries, they can't spend any money on education and health care because they can't pay off the debt,'' said Andrew Laurence, a media coordinator at George Washington University.

Demonstrators braved unseasonably cool weather and blustery winds to participate in the rally to draw attention to meetings in Washington next week of the 182-nation IMF and World Bank. President Clinton, in a message read by economic adviser Gene Sperling, said that in the poorer countries one in 10 children dies before his or her first birthday, one in three children is malnourished, and the average adult has only three years of schooling.

''This is wrong,'' said Clinton, who has requested $210 million for debt relief.

Jo Marie Griesgraber, head of Jubilee2000/USA, said the amount of money the group seeks for debt relief works out to about $8 per American. ''Congress is the only body that can pay for it,'' she said. After the rally, the participants, who chanted ''Cancel the Debt Now'' and ''We've Come to Break the Chain of Debt,'' marched uphill to the Capitol, where they formed the chain around the building.

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