Sanctions should target officials, not oppressed people

Sanctions should target officials, not oppressed people
By Jimmy Carter

The political elite in North Korea do not suffer from the embargo, but
they should.
As we contemplate how to strike back at North Korea because it is
believed to be behind the hacking of Sony Pictures Entertainment's
computer network, the foremost proposal is tightening sanctions. In my
visits to targeted countries, I have seen how this strategy can be cruel
to innocent people who know nothing about international disputes and are
already suffering under dictatorial leaders.

The imposition of economic embargoes on unsavory regimes is most often
ineffective and can be counterproductive. In Cuba, where the news media
are controlled by the government, many people are convinced that their
economic plight is caused by the United States and that they are being
defended by the actions of their Communist leaders, who are, therefore,
strengthened in power. I have visited the homes of both Castro brothers
and some of the regime's other top officials, and it is obvious that
their living conditions have not suffered because of the embargo. Many
Cuban families are deprived of good incomes, certain foods, cellphones,
Internet access and basic freedoms, but at least they have access to a
good education and health care, and they live in a tropical environment
where the soil is productive and where some fortunate families may have
trees that bear bananas and other fruit. In addition, Cubans receive
about $2 billion annually in remittances from friends and relatives in
the United States.

The situation is more tragic in North Korea, where none of these
advantages exists. The U.S. embargo, imposed 64 years ago at the start
of the Korean War, has been more strictly enforced, with every effort
made to restrict or damage North Korea's economy. During my visits to
Pyongyang, I have had extensive discussions with government officials
and forceful female leaders who emphasized the plight of people who were
starving. The United Nations World Food Program estimates that at least
600 grams of cereal per day is needed for a "survival ration" and that
the daily food distribution in North Korea has at times been as low as
128 grams. In 1998, U.S. congressional staffers who visited the country
reported a range of 300,000 to 800,000 dying each year from starvation.

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In 2001, the Carter Center arranged for North Korean agricultural
leaders to go to Mexico to learn how to increase production of their
indigenous crops, and the U.S. contribution of grain rose to 695,000
tons in the late 1990s during a brief period of U.S.-North Korean
reconciliation. However, the contribution was drastically reduced under
President George W. Bush and then terminated completely by President
Barack Obama in 2010. I visited the State Department then and was told
that the main problem was North Korea's refusal to permit any
supervision of food deliveries.

In 2011, I returned to North Korea, accompanied by former Finland
President Martti Ahtisaari, former Ireland President Mary Robinson and
former Norway Prime Minister Gro Brundtland, a physician who had been
director of the World Health Organization. We stopped first in Beijing
for briefings from regional World Food Program officials, who said there
were no restraints on monitoring of food deliveries to families in North
Korea. They followed us to Pyongyang and accompanied us to rural areas
where tiny food allotments were being distributed to families. The
government gave an official guarantee that all such food deliveries
could be monitored by the United States and other donors. I reported
this to Washington, with the assessment that one-third of North Korean
children were malnourished and stunted in their growth, and that daily
food intake was between 700 and 1,400 calories per person, compared with
a normal American's 2,000 to 2,500. Our government took no action.

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There is no excuse for oppression by a dictatorial regime, but the
degree of harsh treatment depends at least partially on the
dissatisfaction of the citizens. Starving people are more inclined to
demand relief from their plight, protest and be punished or executed. As
in Cuba, the political elite in North Korea do not suffer, and the
leaders' all-pervasive propaganda places the blame for deprivation on
the United States, not themselves. The primary objective of dictators is
to stay in office, and we help them achieve this goal by punishing their
already suffering subjects and letting them claim to be saviors.

When nonmilitary pressure on a government is considered necessary,
economic sanctions should be focused on travel, foreign bank accounts
and other special privileges of government officials who make decisions,
not on destroying the economy that determines the living conditions of
oppressed people.

Washington Post

Jimmy Carter was president of the United States.


Source: Sanctions should target officials, not oppressed people -
Chicago Tribune -
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/commentary/ct-jimmy-carter-sanctions-cuba-north-korea-perspec-0101-20141231-story.html