Sixty-three percent of South Africans are opposed to a war against Iraq under any circumstances, and only 20% support war if it is approved by the United Nations, show the findings of a national poll.
This was the finding of an SABC/Markinor poll conducted as part of a Gallup poll in 40 countries on the subject, and released on Friday.
Mari Harris of Markinor said the survey was conducted through telephonic interviews with 800 South Africans who have telephone in their homes. The survey was conducted between January 20 and 24 in the language preferred by the respondent, and was ”not confined to metropolitan areas only”.
Harris said the margin of error was about two percent up or down, and about one-third of South Africans have telephones at home. Harris said she was confident of the survey’s reliability, and would have expected a larger percentage of ”don’t knows” if the survey had been more widespread.
The survey asked four questions:
– How likely do you think that military action will be launched
against Iraq in the next few months?
– Are you in favour of military action against Iraq?
– If military action goes ahead against Iraq, do you think your country should support this action?
– Generally, do you think American foreign policy has a positive, negative or no effect on your country?
Thirty-four percent of South African respondents thought war was very likely; 29% thought war quite likely; and 37% did not know.
Sixty-three percent of South Africans were not in favour of war ”under any circumstances”; 20% were in favour ”only if war is sanctioned by the United Nations”; a mere nine percent were in favour of war undertaken by the United States alone; and eight percent replied ”don’t know”.
Sixty-eight percent of South Africans did not think their country should support military action against Iraq.
Only 10 out of the 40 countries surveyed — including South Africa — had a positive view of US foreign policy. French respondents were the most negative towards American foreign policy while the US also scored low marks with citizens of many European, South American and Pacific countries.
The country with the most favourable view of US foreign policy was Albania, at 78%, followed a long way behind by Romania at 10%. – Sapa