Sir, Jeffrey Sachs writes of a "long saga of failed sanction regimes against Cuba, Haiti and Iraq" and argues that sanctions against Myanmar should be lifted ("Burma: sanctions won't work", July 28).
It is bizarre to cite Iraq in this list, as sanctions did work to achieve the goal of Iraq dismantling its weapons of mass destruction. Equally, sanctions worked in Libya to encourage that regime to dismantle its WMD programme. This leaves aside the more obvious successes of sanctions against the apartheid regime of South Africa, or indeed the trade restrictions imposed by the west on the communist bloc which contributed to the collapse of communism in eastern Europe.
Sanctions against Burma achieve two goals. First, they provide incentives for the Burmese regime to give up power (if they truly cared for the well-being of their people, as Prof Sachs appears to believe, they would do this today). Second, to other countries in the region the message is that to sustain wealth creation via trade with the west and investment, political elites should stick with democracy even if this means losing power.