Economic Sanctions

The last decade of the 20th Century is witnessing an upsurge of economic warfare passing under the euphemism of "sanctions." With a greater and more diversified interdependence within the world community, this kind of war has become more effective and deadlier than ever before. Since the only victims of sanctions are civilians, the omnipotent gods of the public opinion, the media, are used to justify the reasons and obscure the real aim, which is to destroy the enemy. The glaring example of this "new world order" policy are the U.N. sanctions implemented against Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro)

The European Union discarded the last of its economic sanctions against Myanmar on Monday, despite fresh reports that Rohingya Muslims there face bloody and persistent attempts at "ethnic cleansing. " The decision worried activists working to help the ethnic minority. They warned that it was premature. “The international community is quite keen now to do business with Burma," said Chris Lewa, director of the Arakan Project. "I'm afraid this commercial interest may weaken their pressure on the government.” In a report released Monday , Human Rights Watch said Buddhist monks and local leaders have orchestrated a deadly campaign to purge Rohingya Muslims from Rakhine state, a coastal area on the Bay of Bengal.

Russia rejected U.S. and European Union calls to lift economic sanctions on Georgia, saying it had cut transportation links to curb a military buildup by its pro-Western neighbor. Russia halted rail, air and postal connections with the former Soviet republic in response to the arrest of four Russian military officers on spying charges. The four were released Monday. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei V.

WASHINGTON - Six world powers and Iran agreed to hold talks on Tehran's disputed nuclear program this month in Kazakhstan in the latest attempt to avoid a military confrontation over the issue. After three months of negotiations, Iran's national security council reached agreement with the office of the European Union's foreign policy chief and point person for the six world powers, Catherine Ashton, for a meeting Feb. 26. The six nations - Russia, China, France, Germany, Britain and the United States - have been urging Iran to accept limits on a nuclear program that many countries fear is aimed at developing a weapon.

President Clinton, responding to positive developments in Yugoslavia, notified congressional leaders Friday that he was lifting trade and financial sanctions against the Balkan nation. The easing of sanctions does not apply to former President Slobodan Milosevic, his family, his cronies or indicted war crimes suspects. All told, 81 people will remain under sanctions restrictions.

Economic sanctions to force nations to change policies, like those the United States may impose on South Africa, more often fail than succeed, according to a study by an independent research institute. The Washington-based Institute for International Economics reviewed 103 instances of sanctions since World War I and found that 55% failed to achieve their goals. After 1973, almost two-thirds failed to force even modest policy changes, it said in a new book.

President Reagan imposed harsher economic sanctions against Panama Friday, shutting off the flow of U.S. dollars to the Central American nation in an effort to force Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega out of power. Reagan, in a statement, announced that he had invoked the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to increase economic pressure on Noriega, who is under indictment in the United States for drug trafficking.

Ever since the Boston Tea Party, Americans have tried to force change on distant governments by turning the economic screw. Thomas Jefferson called it "peaceful coercion." The modern term is economic sanctions. Even before South Africa joined the target list, the United States had more sanctions in place against more governments than any other nation in the world. Now, however, the value of economic sanctions is being challenged.

Raising the threat of a new crisis with the United Nations, Iraq demanded Thursday that the Security Council lift economic sanctions when it meets later this month to review the status of Baghdad's weapons programs. But U.N. officials said there is little chance that the council will lift the sanctions when it meets, possibly the week of April 27. The U.N.

The United States and Britain joined Friday in vetoing a Security Council proposal that would have imposed sweeping U.N. economic sanctions against South Africa. West Germany cast the only other negative vote as the 15-nation council ended two days of debate on a draft resolution submitted by five nonaligned nations. France and Japan abstained, and the 10 other members voted in favor. U.S. Ambassador Herbert S. Okun announced the U.S.

WASHINGTON -- Britain's Standard Chartered bank has agreed to a $327-million settlement with U.S. officials, who have been investigating the bank for possible violations of economic sanctions against Iran and other countries. The settlement, announced Monday, includes $132 million paid to the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Asset Control and $100 million paid to the Federal Reserve. Treasury officials said the settlement resolves probes into apparent violations by the bank's London and Dubai offices from 2001 to 2007 of U.S. economic sanctions against Iran, Burma, Libya and Sudan, as well as a case involving sanctions related to foreign narcotics kingpins.

Arab foreign ministers Wednesday gave Syria three days to cease what one league official called its "bloody repression" against its people or face economic sanctions, the latest sign of President Bashar Assad's growing isolation. The move by ministers meeting in Rabat, Morocco, came as Syria's humiliating suspension from the Arab League became effective. The 22-member organization on Saturday decided it would suspend Syria by Wednesday if it did not implement a league-brokered peace plan.

The Obama administration was encouraged by Myanmar's recent release of some prisoners under a "humanitarian" amnesty but wants to see more reforms before the U.S. considers lifting economic sanctions on the impoverished nation, officials say. The military government in the Southeast Asian nation has appeared more flexible with political opponents in major cities, but violence has continued against ethnic minorities in the rural north and east, Derek...

Myanmar released fewer prisoners Wednesday than some activists and relatives expected, deflating hope that the regime was trying to dramatically improve its battered human rights reputation. Between 120 and 300 detainees were set free out of a total of 6,359 granted a "humanitarian" amnesty that coincides with a religious holiday and a trip to India by President Thein Sein. The number was difficult to pin down immediately because of staggered release times at prisons across the country, also known as Burma.

President Obama on Wednesday condemned Moammar Kadafi's bloody crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in Libya, saying he had ordered his administration to prepare "a full range of options" to handle the crisis as the death toll rose into the hundreds. Although Obama described the violence in Libya as "outrageous" and "unacceptable," he did not specify any potential actions against Kadafi and did not call on him to resign. A senior administration official said the White House does not want to give Kadafi a chance to cast himself as a patriot resisting American pressure.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton warned China on Friday that it faced international pressure and increasing isolation unless it joined other world powers in sanctioning Iran to try to halt Tehran's nuclear ambitions. The admonishment from Clinton came on the same day the Pentagon announced more than $6 billion in arms sales to Taiwan, a move certain to infuriate Beijing and add a new complication to the U.S.-Chinese relationship. Clinton, speaking at a leading French military academy in Paris, said that China and five other leading nations had been united in trying to persuade Iran to halt uranium enrichment that they fear is aimed at developing nuclear weaponry.

The Organization of American States voted late Monday to deplore Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori's seizure of power but stopped short of imposing economic sanctions. The 32-0 vote, with Peru abstaining, came after Secretary of State James A. Baker III pledged that Western democracies will help Peru solve its severe economic problems if it restores the constitutional government but warned that the nation faces international isolation that will deepen its poverty if it does not.

This week's indictment of three Glendale men for allegedly smuggling vacuum pumps and other industrial equipment to Iran via the United Arab Emirates is the latest reminder of how easily and frequently U.S. trade sanctions against Tehran have been violated. The charges were reported as the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany prepared to meet in New York today to discuss tougher economic measures for pressing Iran to halt its uranium enrichment program. Often called "the liberal alternative" to war, economic sanctions have long been favored by world powers over military action to achieve their foreign policy goals, and the Obama administration sees sanctions as the logical response to Iran's failure to accept an offer to ship its uranium stockpile to France and Russia for conversion into nuclear fuel there.

With Iran's crackdown on protesters intensifying, the Obama administration and allied governments are rethinking their approach to planned sanctions in hopes of focusing the punishments more tightly on the Iranian leadership, U.S. officials say. U.S. and allied officials have been in discussions for months about how to impose economic penalties on Tehran to discourage it from continuing with a uranium enrichment program that the West believes is...