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INS', jkGXV AEP-A AWEPAA, SANCTIONS AND SOUTHERN AFRICA m izz And it happened in the early I 980s that two South African ladies came to see us and discussed the role of this new organisation of politicians in the varied international spectrum of anti-apartheid organisations. After meetings, there was time for relaxation, a bite and a drink and a good laugh: politics was discussed and the struggle and the dilemmas and the fears and life in general and how best to keep plants alive. Whatever happened to those big issues, the plants survived and multiply until this very day, naturally. One of those ladies also survived, now in the role of supreme defender of parliamentary democracy, what else would she be? The other lady, like too many other old friends, is no longer with us and it was not of a natural cause that she died. The author, Peter Sluiter, was AWEPAA Secretary-General from 1984 to 1992. This brochure has been produced on the occasion of the conference: AWEPA 10- YEAR ANNIVERSARY Parliamentary Dialogue on Reconstruction and Democratisation: Focus on European-Southern African Cooperation South African Parliament, Cape Town 6-10 September 1996. © AWEPA/African-European Institute, 1997 Text: Peter Sluiter Photo's: Pieter Boersma unless otherwise stated Design - DTP: Rob van der Doe - Jantine Jimmink Printing: Rob Stolk by Binding: Meeuwis ISBN: 90-72458-63-x European Office Prins Hendrikkade 48 1012 AC Amsterdam The Netherlands Tel. 31.20.5245678 Fax. 31.20.6220130 E-mail [email protected] South African Office Pleinpark Building, 16th Floor Plein Street Cape Town 8001 Tel./Fax 27.21.4621767 E-mail [email protected] Mozambican Office Rua Licenciado Coutinho No. 77 1' andar C.P. 2648 Maputo Tel. 258.1.418603 Fax. 258.1.418604 E-mail [email protected] Contents I n troduLctiOnl 4 1. Pieparing AWEPAA: parliamentirians and the sanctions campaign 5 2. Broadness and flexibility, based on firn principles 13 3. Impact assessment: AWEPAA's contribution to Western sanctions 43 Annex: Sunlmary of Western Economic Sanctions against Sotith Africa 64 Map of Southern Africa 67 AWEPA and the African- European Insti tue 68 AWEPA/AEI Publications 69 Introduction Now that Nelson Mandela has become the most respected statesman in the world, and the African National Congress (ANC) has proved itself successful as both a liberation movement and a capable governing party, it seems impossible that Just 15 years ago there was no major opposition to apartheid in the international comm unity, there was no more than verbal condemnation, no real action against apartheid. To fill this gap, and to point out the moral duty of the western world, AWEPAA was born as the Association of West European Parliamentarians for Action against Apartheid. This publication chronicles the history of AWEPAA's role and involvement in spurring parliamentarians into action, in helping to facilitate the adoption of sanctions legislation, in teaming up with democratic forces, particularly the churches, in South Africa, Namibia and the Frontline States, to force an earl)' end to apartheld, illegal occupation of Namibia, and the destabilisation wars in Southern Africa. No book of this kind can do justice to the real struggle that took place in Europe. In order to do so, it would be necessary to pry open or unshred the secret security archives of the previous regime, to interview dear African friends and colleagues who lost their lives in the struggle, and to rake up the tarnished record of reluctant European politicians who now claim to have never supported apartheid. Instead this work gives an illustration of what it was like on the inside of an effective lobbying machine. International sanctions as a tool of non-violent persuasion have been used in numerous situations and with mixed results. One message which clearly arises from this story is the vitally important role of parliamentarians. By passing effective laws, tightening loopholes, and calling governments and their ministers to account, parliamentarians can make sanctions policies work. As the following pages make clear, AWEPAA members in most western European countries played a key role during a crucial period in the history of Southern Africa. AWEPAA went through a transformation process to become the Association of European Parliamentarians for Africa (AWEPA), shifting its focus to the consolidation of democracy and human rights, while maintaining an effective lobby mechanism for keeping African concerns high on the political agenda in Europe and improving Furopean-Southern African relations. The central focus on human dignity, seen in development, democracy and respect for human right, remains the prime motivation for AWEPA and its members. I hope this publication will serve as a reminder of the past, and inspire continuing solidarity and partnership for the future. My sincere gratitude goes out to all those AWEPA members who worked with us through these years, and all our African partners who walked with us side by side. Jan Nico Scholten President of AWEPA Preparing AWEPAA: Parliamentarians and the Sanctions Campaign AWEPAA becomes AWEPA AWEPAA, the Association of West European Parliamentarians for Action against Apartheid, has broadened its scope in Europe and its focus in Africa. A new name is therefore being adopted, the Association of European Parliamentarians for (Southern) Africa. For historical reasons, the acronym remains basically the same: AWEPA. AWEPA is still devoted to the total eradication of apartheid. With parliamentarians now from West and Eastern Europe, AWEPA concentrates on human rights, democratisation and (human) development within the present Southern African Development Community and South Africa, its future member. The following issues are of paramount importance for parliamentary attention and action: - dialogue for democratisation and human rights; - support to young multi-party democracies, e.g. Namibia, Mozambique, Zambia; - the sending of electoral observer teams and voter education trainers, e.g. South Africa, Mozambique; - the promotion of socio-economic recovery in all of Southern Africa; - improving development cooperation relations between Europe and Southern Africa; - the promotion of research and policy debate with regard to post-apartheid regional cooperation; - the stimulation of debate and research on the topic of South Africa and the Lomd Convention; - the promotion of human resource development; - the solution of the Southern African refugee problem before the year 2000; - a special focus on the children of apartheid, Southern Africa's future potential. FROM AWEPA BULLETIN, 1993 During most of its existence, campaigning for sanctions against Apartheid South Africa has been one of the core activities of AWl PAA, the Association of West European Parliamentarians for Action against Apartheid, as the organisation was baptised more than 10 years ago. Since the mid-1990s, the world has become accustomed to the existence of a non-racial and democratic South Africa and the Mandela asks AWEPA to continue ANC leader Dr. Nelson Mandela commended AWEPA for its part in mobilising democratic forces against apartheid. He expressed the hope that AWEPA will help strengthening cooperation between the European Community and South Africa. Mandela, who spoke at the crowded opening session of the AWEPA-EC Presidency Conference in Brussels on 7 and 8 October 1993, urged Europe to playa key role in the democratisation in Southern Africa. The ANC leader, who a week earlier at the United Nations had called for an end to sanctions, pleaded for an increase of European trade with South Africa. association has gone full swing in implementing its new tasks in the new configuration. Its full name has been simplified to European Parliamentarians for (Southern) Africa, though the acronym has remained almost unchanged, losing one 'A' at the end which one can only read and not hear: 'AWEPA' still sounds like an African battle cry and why not? That similarity between the old and the new AWEPA(A) is more than just in sounds. In a changed political and social configuration, AWEPA has remained the same organisation that it always was: a network of European politicians promoting the welfare of the people and countries in Southern Africa. In many respects, it shows a continuity in its activities and style since the early 1980s: it brings together European politicians with widely diverging political and geographical backgrounds, across party-political divisions and based on common political aims and positions, it cooperates with relevant departments of the United Nations, it liaises not only with parliamentarians and government representatives, but also with representatives of civil society, in Southern Africa as well as in Europe. Since the formal abolition of apartheid and the installation of a democratically elected parliament and government, one of AWEPAA's key policy objectives has become obsolete, fortunately: introduction of economic sanctions against South Africa by law, effective implementation and preventing their premature lifting. This brochure describes the history of AWEPAA from that perspective. For AWEPAA 'Action against Apartheid'imostly meant sanctions, generally defined as: restrictions on relations with a country, imposed by the international community as a whole or by one or more individual states.