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Debt Help MAPUTO, Mozambique -- Leaders of the Southern Africa Development Community Tuesday called on the international community to cancel all foreign debts owed by Mozambique.

This measure is aimed at ensuring that the country channels all available resources to the reconstruction of destroyed infrastructure and property in the southern and central regions that were hit by devastating floods in February.

Convened in Maputo at the behest of the community's deputy chairman and President of Namibia, Sam Nujoma, the extraordinary summit reviewed the impact of the floods caused by heavy rains and compounded by Cyclone Eline.

"This is the time for the international community to show empathy with the people of Mozambique by heeding our call for debt cancellation," Botswana President Festus Mogae said.

"Let me hasten to stress that by asking for debt cancellation for Mozambique, I'm not for a moment suggesting that all other assistance and development aid should cease," he stressed, adding that the massive destruction caused by the floods requires a multi-pronged approach.

It was also agreed that a regional institutional mechanism for disaster preparedness and management which would provide a timely response to similar situations should be established.

"This mechanism would also be responsible for mobilising resources that would be used to obviate the effects of disasters whenever they occur," the leaders said in a communique.

They urged the international community to provide long term support to such mechanisms.

The communique said that unspecified additional measures are needed to support the affected populations and to strengthen regional co-ordination mechanisms in order to trigger off the reconstruction of Mozambique and other countries affected in the region.

In Mozambique alone, some two million people have been affected by the floods, including one million in need of assistance.

About 330,000 people were displaced or left homeless, while the confirmed death toll has risen to 492. This figure continues to rise as more bodies are found in the receding flood waters.

It is estimated that as many as 10 million people in the four flood-stricken countries of the region, namely Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe, face the risk of transmissible diseases.

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act is the federal law that dictates how and when a debt collector may contact you. A debt collector may not call you before 8 a.m., after 9 p.m., or at work if the collector knows that your employer doesn't approve of the calls. Collectors may not harass you, make false statements, or use unfair practices when they try to collect a debt. Debt collectors must honor a written request from you to cease further contact.

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