unitex@rubbs.fidonet.org (unitex) (09/12/89)
FINANCIAL MEASURES AGAINST SOUTH AFRICA DISCUSSED
AT HEARINGS ON ACTIVITIES OF TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATIONS
(Received from the UN Information Service.)
GENEVA, 4 September -- The panel of eminent persons conducting
public hearings on the role of transnational corporations in
South Africa and Namibia discussed this afternoon the issue of
financial measures against South Africa.
Statements were made by Hudar Cars, spokesman for Sweden's
Liberal Party; Terry Crawford-Browne, a former South African
banker and currently an adviser to Bishop Desmond Tutu and the
Rev. Alan Boesak; John Lind, a research analyst from San
Francisco; Keith Ovenden, author of a newly-published book
entitled Apartheid and International Finance: a Programme for
Change; and Donna Katzin, of the Interfaith Center on Corporate
Responsibility, New York.
Statements
HUDAR CARS, spokesman of the Liberal Party of Sweden, said his
country was strongly dependent on international trade; some 50
per cent of its industrialized products were exported. To
Sweden, sanctions was "not a tool to be played with".
The proper organ to decide about economic sanctions was the
United Nations Security Council, he said. In the United
Nations, Sweden had again and again spoken in favour of
mandatory and comprehensive sanctions against the apartheid
regime. It had supported the 1977 decision on the arms embargo
as it considered that the present situation in southern Africa
constituted a threat for international peace and security.
The reluctance of the Security Council to go much further than it
had done so far -- due to the power of the veto of permanent
members -- had prompted Sweden to take actions on its own, he
said. The recommendations of the Security Council in the
economic field had been interpreted by Sweden in a positive
manner and its actions had gradually been extended.
He said the reason why Sweden had felt that it should extend its
actions was the uniqueness of apartheid. Nowhere else had
racism become the corner stone of the legal framework of a
State. That made the present situation in South Africa both
totally unique and completely unacceptable. That was also the
reason why the Swedish Government and a strong majority in the
Parliament had strongly objected any proposal to apply
unilateral sanctions against any other regime.
As a consequence of the Swedish disinvestment law of l979 and
further related legislation, the number of Swedish owned
subsidiaries in South Africa had gradually decreased -- from 12
to five companies. The seven had sold out or closed. The
remaining five were mainly in the mining sector. The question
was whether they would be able to continue very long in South
Africa in their present forms.
He said it was sometimes questioned -- and not only by the
Swedish companies and trade unions directly concerned -- whether
the policy of disinvestment would in a longer perspective, be
considered beneficial to the non-racial state of South Africa
which would emerge and for its relations with Sweden. The
recommendation of the Swedish authorities to the companies were,
however, to substitute their presence in South Africa with new
investments in the front-line States. But so far, not much had
happened in this field. Some $500 million -- 50 per cent of
Sweden's bilateral and programme -- was allocated to the
front-line States. It was important that the policy of
disinvestment be continued until major changes had occured in
South Africa.
He said the Swedish sanction policy with regard to South Africa
was already fairly complete and would soon be about as tight as
possible. An area where there was some discussion about the
usefulness of tight sanctions concerned the granting of visas to
South Africans to visit Sweden. Today it was more or less
required that the applicant for a visa should be able to prove
that he or she had taken a firm stand against apartheid. The
argument against this practice was that it may be useful if
ordinary white South Africans were exposed to the way of
thinking in countries like Sweden.
* Origin: UNITEX --> Toward a United Species (1:107/501)
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Patt Haring | UNITEX : United Nations
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