Commonwealth Sanctions Drive Blunted by Thatcher

Efforts to have the Commonwealth heads of government impose mandatory economic sanctions against the white-minority regime in South Africa appear to have failed.

Faced with unwavering British opposition, even the militant black nations on South Africa’s border have given up their hopes that the 49-nation association might call for mandatory sanctions, according to sources on several delegations.

Instead, the leaders are expected to agree on a less-drastic proposal during the weekend when they leave Nassau for a private retreat where they will work informally without even their aides present. The Commonwealth heads of government meeting includes leaders from Britain and its former colonies in Asia, Africa, Canada, the Caribbean and the Pacific.

Probable Points

Although the details remain vague, interviews with delegates from the major nations on both sides of the sanction dispute indicate that the heads of government might agree on the following:

--A total and unequivocal condemnation of apartheid, including a demand that the system be dismantled immediately and blacks granted total equality.

--The appointment of a committee of “eminent persons” from within the Commonwealth to begin a “dialogue” with the Pretoria government concerning such reforms.

--A resolution that would encourage some economic pressure on South Africa. This is the vaguest part of the possible agreement, but British sources say it may involve a call for letting free-market economic forces play a part.

Sources pointed out that concern over the continuing instability in South Africa has already damaged that nation’s economy and forced businessmen and some politicians to call for reforms and a meeting with leaders of the outlawed African National Congress, the black group leading the often violent opposition to the Pretoria regime.

“There is no reason that this (type of pressure) won’t continue,” said one member of the British delegation, “and we don’t see why that sort of thing can’t be included in a Commonwealth statement.”

British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher underlined this approach in Friday’s closed discussion on South Africa.

The surrender in the face of Thatcher’s opposition to sanctions did not come easily. There were signs of continued bitterness, particularly when the head of the Nigerian delegation, Commodore O.E. Vkiwe, was said to have implied Friday that Thatcher’s position was based on her desire to protect $17-billion worth of British investments in South Africa.

Vkiwe then raised the possibility that, if Thatcher did not agree to effective measures against South Africa, black African nations might retaliate by boycotting trade with Britain.

But sources in other black delegations discounted the Nigerian threat and said that acting without the British would mean the effective destruction of the Commonwealth. And that, nearly all the sources agreed, would be even worse than the failure to impose economic sanctions.

Two of the most strident early advocates of mandatory sanctions, Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda and Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, were said to have resigned themselves to the fact that Thatcher would not give in to their demands.

Kaunda was said to have told the delegates that, “for the sake of accord,” he would be willing to look at non-mandatory sanctions.

Gandhi was said by sources in his government to have taken a similar approach because of the importance of a unified approach. “He doesn’t like it and doubts that it (the likely compromise) will work, but he believes a split in the Commonwealth would send the wrong signal” to Pretoria, said the sources.

Thatcher Victory

If the compromise follows the expected lines, it will represent a near total victory for Thatcher, who rejected efforts by the Australians and the Canadians to establish some type of schedule for imposing sanctions step-by-step and over a period of time if the South Africans do not undertake significant reforms.

“Mrs. Thatcher told them she would have no truck with economic sanctions,” said one British source, adding that she also refused to consider “any discussion of definitions of what is a sanction.”

At one point, she even refused to offer any solutions beyond her oft-stated position that “dialogue is the only way to bring about change.”

“We are not in the business of new measures,” the source said the prime minister told the meeting.

“People finally began to understand we meant what we said,” the source continued, “and accepted that slogans aren’t realistic policy and that sanctions are extremely counterproductive and will only drive the South Africans further into the laager, “ a reference to the circled-wagon tactics the South Africans used in their turn-of-the-century rebellion against Britain.