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Dear All, We have been urged to write to Peter Hain, UK foreign affairs minister, to protest his claim that there is no alternative to sanctions on Iraq. However, we should NOT make the point that apartheid South Africa was better than Iraq - > (ii) the government of South Africa was considerably more democratic > than is that of Iraq, and thus more likely to be responsive to popular > demands created by economic hardship resulting from sanctions. Peter Hain, born in South Africa and a former campaigner against the racist regime will (rightly) laugh at the idea that the butchers in Pretoria were in any sense democratic or open to persuasion. White minority rule was not overthrown by popular protest. Hain will accuse us of naivety about S Africa AND ignorance about Iraq, and use our letters to discredit us. While sanctions are crippling Iraq, they had NO EFFECT WHATEVER on the economy of S Africa. This means that any comparison of Iraq with S Africa is dangerous, since it might be argued that in both cases, sanctions have only a moral force, with no consequences for the people. JV -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a discussion list run by the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. To be removed/added, email soc-casi-discuss-request@lists.cam.ac.uk, NOT the whole list. Please do not send emails with attached files to the list *** Archived at http://linux.clare.cam.ac.uk/~saw27/casi/discuss.html ***