Sanctions in Paradise

Commonwealth Finance Ministers' Conferences are held annually on one of the many beautiful island member states of the British Commonwealth and are usually very boring. The 1985 Conference was just like all its predecessors in the first respect. It was held in the Seychelles, the most stunning of all the Commonwealth's small states. But it was totally unlike any other Conference in the second respect.

The main item on the Conference agenda was whether or not the Commonwealth should impose economic sanctions on South Africa because of its apartheid policies. The South Africans were determined that would not happen. They infiltrated Seychelles and carried out attacks and threats aimed at getting the conference called off or scaring delegates into voting against imposing sanctions. Their attempts come to a dramatic and explosive end.