PRESIDENT BUSH IS RIGHT TO ERASE TRADE SANCTIONS

President Bush announced Wednesday that the United States will end five years of sanctions with South Africa. The American president said that South Africa, a nation for years eroding domestically and internationally because of its oppressive policy of apartheid, has shown good faith in working toward racial unity. Enough is enough. We applaud the president's action with the hope South Africa continues to adjust to these sweeping social changes.

Some facts in this issue are inarguable. One is that the control of South African government by a white minority was an affront to all democratic nations. Another is that South Africa hurt its own national interest in terms of finance, global prestige and other ways by clinging to the onerous notion of racial separation. Still another is that the South African economy (hence, South African people of all colors) has suffered over the last decade as a result of the pressures produced by other nations' dislike for apartheid.

The United States and other countries were right to voice their displeasure. However, were sanctions the best route? Even if they were, are they still relevant and necessary?

Sanctions are appropriate when a nation like Iraq illegally and violently annexes a sovereign neighbor like Kuwait. In South Africa, democratic principles were defied and morality was abridged, but the dispute has been confined to within the country's borders. Even those who supported sanctions when they were first introduced must now agree that significant progress has been made by the Pretoria government in righting the wrongs of apartheid. Continuing to direct harsh economic penalties at the people of South Africa seems excessive, even cruel. What purpose is served by inflicting further hardships on a nation acting to correct mistaken policies?

President Frederic de Klerk has led his nation in bending to world opinion. South Africa is making racial progress. It is not out of line for other nations that have pointed accusing fingers to recognize this and meet Pretoria halfway.

South Africa has many problems to overcome. Its drive to surmount racial problems of the past is far from over; there is much work to do. The nation's economy has experienced a tremendous blow from foreign governments and business concerns that snubbed the South African marketplace. The sanctions are clearly doing more harm than good. President Bush is right to lift them and help South Africa work its way back into the mainstream of the ~international community.