(TALKZIMBABWE) Targetted sanctions: warming up for a big punch

Targetted sanctions: warming up for a big punch
Godfrey Chakanetsa -- Guest Columnist
Fri, 06 Mar 2009 01:58:00 +0000

‘TARGETED sanctions’ is a term often referred to by countries that purport to control weaker nations and impose their hegemony on them.

The term has been masked as referring to asset freezes and travel bans; yet wherever they are imposed, they are imposed in the context of broader economic sanctions.

A survey of sanctions cases in the twenty first century shows that targeted sanctions (such as arms embargoes, asset freezes and travel sanctions) have often been followed by many other measures that affect populations.

In these cases targeted sanctions were almost always imposed in combination with selective export restrictions and/or aid suspensions.

The record indicates that targeted sanctions have been used either as a "warm-up" for broader measures or as the supposed "knock-out" punch.

The sanctions episode against Haiti in the last century illustrates the "knock-out" approach.

Initial trade sanctions by the Organization of American States were followed by more comprehensive sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council. Only after these sanctions failed to bring change were targeted measures aimed directly at the Haitian military imposed.

United Kingdom and United States sanctions against Zimbabwe illustrate the "warm-up" approach, followed by a "knock-out" punch.

An asset freeze, arms embargo have been precursors to import/export bans and suspension of multilateral trade arrangements and suspension of aid packages.

Targeted sanctions, in the various cases where they were imposed outside of comprehensive embargoes, have been followed by punitive sanctions that affect millions of people in the respective countries.

As international support for broad sanctions wanes, alternative measures masked as being targeted on the political elite are meant to offer a way to continue pressure while reducing the impact on the general population. However, the general population has not been spared the effects of these sanctions.

During the long hostilities involving Serbia, the EU was unable to separate targetted sanctions on entities and individuals linked to President Milosevic, from the disastrous effects on the population.

In Zimbabwe today, the cholera epidemic cannot be separated from the lack of foreign currency made possible by punitive measures against businesses and the government in general.

“Targeted sanctions” are often masked by the sender states as "doing something" about nations that do not satisfy their foreign policy goals.

Then UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in his "Report of the Secretary-General on the Work of the Organization - 1998" concluded: "The international community should be under no illusion: these humanitarian and human rights policy goals cannot easily be reconciled with those of a sanctions regime.

“It cannot be too strongly emphasized that sanctions are a tool of enforcement and, like other methods of enforcement, they will do harm. This should be borne in mind when the decision to impose them is taken, and when the results are subsequently evaluated."