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South Africa Flexes Its Economic Muscle
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12352 |
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Section : |
CURRENT ISSUES
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| Issue
Date : |
1 / 1987 |
1,803 Words |
| Author
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Sanjiv Prakash
Sanjiv Prakash is a print and television journalist based in
the Washington, D.C. area. |
With world outcry against South Africa's apartheid policies reaching a fervent pitch, it is natural to expect that the bulk of the criticism against the Botha regime would originate from the black African states. Both President Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia and Prime Minister Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, for example, have tirelessly rallied world support against Pretoria. For the past 12 months, beginning with the British Commonwealth heads of state meeting in Nassau, the Bahamas, in October 1985, the call for broad economic sanctions against South Africa has rapidly accelerated. At the Nassau summit, 49 countries which were once part of the British Empire issued a call to the Western industrialized nations, especially the United States, to use their influence to economically ostracize South Africa in an effort to force that nation to renounce its apartheid policies.
The call that originated during that seven-day meeting has since snowballed into a global consensus for punitive sanctions against South Africa. The United States originally greeted the hue and cry from Nassau without much enthusiasm; the White House and the State Department preferred to back a policy of "constructive engagement." With congressional and public opinion in the United States coming down squarely against South Africa, though, the administration gradually came to accept sanctions as part of its overall policy toward South Africa. The British government continues to balk at levying sanctions, labeling them as "unwise and unnecessary."
With most Western nations - who account for nearly 68 percent of South Africa's trade - taking the passive route, either out of domestic political concerns or national self-interest, the brunt of the nonviolent war of words and
... (1993 of 11267 Characters)
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