Canada urges sanctions

Press, 15 July 1986, Page 10

Canada urges sanctions

NZPA-Reuter Montreal

Canada is prepared to act alone in Imposing economic sanctions on South Africa if other Commonwealth members fall to reach agreement, the .Prime Minister, Mr Brian Mulroney, said yesterday after meeting Britain’s Prime Minister, Mrs Margaret Thatcher. After their 90-minute meeting, Mrs Thatcher said she and Mr Mulroney had “preliminary discussions on matters affecting South Africa” and she had not changed her position. A firm opponent of broad economic sanctions, Mrs Thatcher repeated her view that the recent so-called Eminent Person Group report on South Africa did not specifically recommend that the Commonwealth impose economic sanctions.

“We abhor apartheid. The question is how to get rid of it. Negotiation, that is the way we have succeeded in the past,” she said.

But Mr Mulroney said he interpreted the report as supporting some type of economic actions by the 49-member Commonwealth.

“The spirit of that statement surely is straightforward,” said Mr Mulroney, who, like Mrs Thatcher, is a Conservative.

■ He said Canada hoped to persuade the Commonwealth to take action but, if a consensus was not ‘ reached, Canada would act alone.

He did not specify what type of measures he would seek to impose on South Africa.

“We’re going to go to the Commonwealth conference with our principles and our position and hope that it will be the majority,” he said. Seven Commonwealth leaders, including Mr Mulroney, will meet in

London in August to consider sanctions. Mr Mulroney noted that Commonwealth leaders at a meeting in Nassau last October agreed to take action against South Africa if the Government did not show signs of significant change. If Commonwealth members failed to agree on what measures to take, the lack of unanimity would be "a bonanza” for South Africa, said Mr Mulroney.

Mrs Thatcher left for London after meeting Mr Mulroney, the final event in her visit to Canada.