Apart from the cynicism of any sanctions, in the end it was not sanctions that brought change to both Rhodesia and South Africa. In the end it was the liberation war plus brute political force on the part of the United States that ended Smith regime.
In South Africa it was the Thatcher Government that simply threatened to force the country out of global financial systems that finally decided the National Party that they had to accept change.
What the UN underestimated when they tried to make the Rhodesians change by imposing sanctions, was the strength of relationships across the world and the fact that the regime in Salisbury had many friends and sympathisers in many places.
They also underestimated the response of the private sector who, when pushed against the wall, fought for survival. In the process, contrary to their stated objectives, many local individuals made a fortune in the process and were certainly not in favour of any changes.
The new Zimbabwe Government was no angel of light, in a savage campaign from 1983 to 1987, they committed genocide against the supporters of the only effective opposition in the form of ZAPU.
Tens of thousands died and hundreds of thousands fled the country for safety. The West, not one of them, took any action and turned a blind eye to the whole shameful episode.
From 1987 to 1997, the Mugabe regime simply crushed any opposition and maintained a one Party State that brooked no opposition and rapidly became one of the most corrupt and dictatorial States in Africa. Throughout this period western criticism of Mugabe and his colleagues was at best, muted.
It was only when the Trade Unions took to the field and created the Movement for Democratic Change and began to agitate for the dismantling of the one Party State and the adoption of a new Constitution, that the basic structure of Zimbabwean politics began to change.
Few western Governments made any effort to help this fledgling movement that was almost entirely made up of the poor and disadvantaged.
A British NGO made a grant to the MDC of $100 000 and the British Government nearly fell over themselves trying to distance themselves from the grant.
But by 2002 it was becoming obvious to everyone that the MDC was here to stay and that they were, almost single handedly, dismantling the One Party State at the cost of hundreds of their supporters and many of their leaders.
In a belated attempt to help, Western States imposed ‘targeted sanctions on some 200 individuals and companies’ with a demand that the regime adopts reforms that would in fact commit them to political suicide in the struggle with the MDC.
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