SANCTIONS
1. At a forum in UKM recently, Dr Chandra Muzaffar raised the matter of sanctions in international affairs and suggested that sanction is war by other means. Therefore it should be made a crime and that the campaign to make war a crime should include sanctions.2. I fully agree with Dr Muzaffar that sanction is a crime.
3. In the past, during the numerous wars of the European nations, one of the most effective weapons was the siege. This consisted of cutting off communication of a city with the outside through positioning soldiers all round the city so that the citizens would be starved to death or surrender.
4. The concept has been “upgraded” so that whole country could be cut off from communication and trade with other countries. The effect is to starve and deprive the people of food and medicine until the country surrenders. It is another way of killing people as in war.