Constructive Engagement?
Bloom, Jack
Constructive Engagement? The new South Africa coddles dictators. by Jack Bloom When Ghana celebrated its 50th year of independence in early March, the biggest cheer at the event was for...
...He is still a hero to large numbers of Africans despite his brutal suppression of opponents, the highest inflation in the world (1,700 percent), 80 percent unemployment, and an average male life expectancy of 37 in his country...
...Nelson Mandela disclosed in 1999 that King Fahd of Saudi Arabia and Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates had each given $10 million to the ANC...
...There is an extraordinary focus by the South African government on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, far out of proportion to South Africa’s minimal leverage in the area and to other, much worse conflicts in Africa, such as Darfur...
...South Africa took up a two-year nonpermanent seat at the United Nations Security Council in January this year...
...Meanwhile, $50 million was donated from Malaysia’s Mahathir Mohamad and $60 million from Indonesia’s Suharto...
...While South Africa recently refused an American request to place two local Muslims on the U.N...
...The response was that this was an “administrative oversight,” an explanation that was repeated when South Africa failed to join the 103 countries that cosponsored the U.N...
...The recent savage beating of Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai evoked a tepid expression of “concern” from deputy foreign minister Aziz Pahad, who appealed to “leaders of opposition political parties to work towards a climate that is conducive to finding a lasting solution to the challenges faced by the people of Zimbabwe...
...The weak excuse on Burma was that it was a matter not for the Security Council but rather the Human Rights Council...
...Mugabe received similar applause from assembled dignitaries when he visited South Africa for the second inauguration of President Thabo Mbeki in April 2004...
...The Jewish community expressed alarm when the government failed to condemn Iranian president Ahmadinejad’s outburst about wiping Israel off the map...
...The Department of Foreign Affairs denied a report that the aim of the meeting was to seek assurances that South Africa would not back further sanctions against Iran, insisting it was a “routine” meeting...
...Zimbabwe’s neighbor, South Africa, has massive unused leverage, supplying electricity (on credit...
...Vorster effectively pulled the plug on white-ruled Rhodesia in this way...
...South Africa has in recent years strengthened its ties with Iran, defending Tehran’s right to develop nuclear technology and allegedly offering to supply it with uranium (this is detailed in the Jan./Feb...
...Indonesia’s Suharto was feted on a visit to South Africa, and awarded the highest order of honor...
...In the run-up to the American invasion in 2003, deputy foreign minister Pahad visited Baghdad and made every effort to prevent Saddam’s ouster...
...dominance...
...Security Council, it will be interesting to watch whether South Africa chooses to rise above the Third World solidarity approach and crude anti-Americanism that has too often prevailed Jack Bloom, author of Out of Step: Politics and Religion in a World at War, is a senior member of the opposition Democratic Alliance in South Africa, writing in his personal capacity...
...edition of the Arms Control Association journal Arms Control Today...
...When Nelson Mandela was president, there was rhetoric about a human-rights-based approach to foreign affairs, but dictators were still embraced, especially Fidel Castro...
...and controlling the supply of goods through border posts...
...It has defended in court the controversial 2005 deportation of a terror suspect to Pakistan, described by opponents as an illegal abduction...
...With its new seat on the U.N...
...The quip was made that the government “has yet to meet a dictator it does not like...
...In August 2006, Pahad asserted that the international reaction to the Iranian nuclear program was the result of “the inherent discriminatory nature of the [Nuclear Nonproliferation] treaty, which created two distinct groups: the haves and the have-nots...
...Security Council’s terror list, it has officially admitted that al Qaeda operatives are in the country, with some sympathizers among the local Muslim community, and that “small” terror training camps could be operating here...
...This illustrates the continuing emotional pull of Third World solidarity against “imperialism” that lingers on in South Africa’s post-apartheid foreign policy...
...South Africa endeavors to punch above its weight in international affairs...
...In monitoring terror suspects, South Africa is probably doing more than it admits publicly in view of criticism from vocal Muslim and other pressure groups...
...by Jack Bloom When Ghana celebrated its 50th year of independence in early March, the biggest cheer at the event was for Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe...
...The official line is for a negotiated two-state solution that satisfies the legitimate interests of both parties, but the preponderance of censure falls on Israel...
...Foreign funding of the ANC has been extensive...
...The ANC and Iraq’s Baath party cemented fraternal ties, and when Saddam’s deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz visited South Africa in July 2002, he was privileged to address the ANC caucus in parliament...
...South Africa’s official policy on Zimbabwe is “silent diplomacy,” which boils down to very little pressure at all...
...South Africa’s role in the latter body and its predecessor has been to block country-specific resolutions of censure, except when it comes to Israel...
...Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, met with President Mbeki on February 25...
...Mbeki has had cordial meetings with President Bush, and trade flourishes between the two countries...
...It understands this to mean lining up with countries like China, Russia, India, and Brazil as a counter to perceived U.S...
...It emerged later that top South African business and political figures had benefited hugely from the U.N.’s OilforFood program...
...Like much else in South Africa, the issue was racialized, with Mandela wondering whether Iraq was treated differently than Israel because Iraq was “black” and Israel was “white...
...Official recognition of China was delayed for four years because of lavish donations made by Taiwan in 1994...
...General Assembly resolution on Holocaust denial in January...
...Of course, when the ruling African National Congress (ANC) was in exile, it sang a different tune, leading worldwide efforts to isolate South Africa with sanctions and castigating the Reagan administration for its “constructive engagement” policy...
...In broader foreign policy, the trend is similarly toward supporting antiWest dictators, justified on the basis that they supported the ANC during the struggle years...
...In the 1970s, South African prime minister B.J...
...Furthermore, an ANC-linked company transferred $1.5 million to the ANC that it had received from a state-owned oil company dealing in Iraqi crude, a highly irregular transaction that has been dubbed “Oilgate...
...It was quite predictable, although human rights groups expressed surprise, that South Africa used its new seat, along with permanent members China and Russia, to reject a resolution calling on the military junta in Burma to stop human rights abuses...
...South Africa had close ties to Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, opposing sanctions and questioning the legality of the “no fly zones” in that country...
Vol. 12 • April 2007 • No. 28
