AXWORTHY CALLS FOR “SMART” (I.E., TARGETED) SANCTIONS, AND REACHES NEW HEIGHTS IN HYPOCRISY;
WHEN WILL CANADIANS HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF WORDS WITHOUT ACTION?
Eric Reeves [April 19, 2000]
Smith College ereeves@sophia.smith.edu
Northampton, MA 01063
413-585-3326
Mr. Axworthy’s most recent bit of hypocritical rhetoric is the promotion of “smart” sanctions, which he argues would punish rogue regimes by imposing specific disciplinary measures rather than broad-based trade embargoes that often hurt civilians. It’s a great idea!
But then, in the name of all the suffering peoples of southern Sudan, what could possibly be “smarter” than to sanction the oil project that now sustains the murderous “rogue” regime in Khartoum? This is the regime that came to power in June of 1989 by deposing an elected government. This is the regime that has engaged in intense scorched-earth warfare to clear the oil regions to protect its revenue source and to secure further foreign investment and development. This is the regime that continues a savage campaign of aerial bombardment against civilian targets in the south, such as schools, hospitals, refugee centers, and emergency feeding stations. This is the regime that continues to “pay” its militias in the coin of human slavery. This is the regime that continues to conducts its war at the present level of intensity only because of revenues from the flow of oil.
What could possibly be more appropriate, better targeted, than a sanctions regime against an oil development project that benefits only this regime?
But yet again, what we have from Mr. Axworthy is fine words—and a disgracefully hypocritical lack of action against Canada’s Talisman Energy, a key economic partner of this very same Khartoum regime.