Quote:
Originally Posted by Devils'Advocate
http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/06/...nion/edsuu.php
It is the Burmese THEMSELVES calling for the sanctions. And note that it is Desmond Tutu speaking - South Africa was forced to end apartheid due to sanctions. Do I think the SPDC is going to be brought down by sanctions? Not on their own. But as Aung San Suu Kyi points out, it is one tool of many that the international community should be wielding. Her National League for Democracy is 100% behind the international community uniting in bringing sanctions against Burma as a means of weakening the SPDC.
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I'm not sure if you read your own link or not, but nowhere does it say that "the Burmese people" want sanctions. It says that the president who was deposed 18 years ago and her colleagues want sanctions. It's sad what happened to her, but despite being illegally overthrown, I have trouble accepting that someone elected 18 years ago with little contact outside her home, speaks for all Burmese people.
Anyway, you never answered the question. Nevermind who wants what, give me some examples of where sanctions work positively. The only way they can work is if the leaders actually care about their citizens as sanctions only serve to weaken the populace.
I can think of numerous examples of positive change in dictatorships without full blown sanctions. For example, more countries in the Iron Curtain fell because Western democratic and liberal ideals were spread through increased contact. People sought what we had because they knew about it. If not for contact between Burmese and Westerners, they will have no idea about the world outside their borders.
For another example, look at the Dominican Republic. The Dominican Republic has a history of dictatorship but was brought along by increasing ties, not by sanctions.