Natural Resources and Violent Conflict - WaterWiki.net

follow the money 173EmbargoesAn ongoing conflict in which contesting military or security forces areoperating within a territory is generally the prerequisite to the UNauthorizing a broad regime of sanctions that covers a territory, with certainexceptions to allow for the imposition of sanctions on regimes thathave initiated conflict and are deemed to be dangerous (such as Iraq).Sanctions regimes can be total or partial, short term or long term. 13The imposition of embargoes reduces access to markets, especiallythose in the most developed countries, which constitute the most sustainedsource of demand for the products of an embargoed country. Incases where there is a political consensus in support of sanctions, theloss of market access for both imports and exports can have an immediateand substantial impact on the civilian population of the targetedcountry, undermining political support over time for continuation ofthe conflict. Embargoes also may make it harder for people to exportillicit natural resources, as buyers become scarce. By reducing demand,embargoes may accomplish their immediate objective: reducing thesources of funds for warring combatants. They may also have thesecondary benefit of reducing the harvesting of the commodities.Embargoes are only as good as the political consensus that sustainsthem. Black marketers, criminal organizations, corrupt officials, andlegitimate businesses willing to ignore sanctions in favor of profits willroutinely violate sanctions to the extent that broader regulatory and enforcementmeasures do not prevent them from doing so. Embargoes oncountries selling goods such as oil and timber that have inelastic marketsmay increase the price on global markets for the banned commodity,rewarding those willing to violate the sanctions. Embargoes mayalso strengthen the relative political and economic power of thoseviolating them, both within and outside the embargoed country, by givingthose willing to break the law a market advantage over those abidingby the law. Civilian populations tend to experience the brunt ofacross-the-board sanctions, as local security forces requisition keycommodities for themselves, focusing any market deprivations on thegeneral population, which may then blame the sanctions rather thanthe government or local security forces for their suffering.The imposition of sanctions on South Africa played a critical role,over time, in forcing the dismantling of apartheid and the creation ofdemocracy in the country. Sanctions imposed on Serbia made a keycontribution to the eventual displacement of the Milosevic regime.Indeed, some U.S. policymakers have argued that Milosevic’s downfallwas brought about by the impact of sanctions once funds controlled byMilosevic and held in financial institutions outside Serbia were identifiedand the sanctions began to impose constraints on the well-being of