Asia Times: EU toughens sanctions against Burma


	May 25, 2000	atimes.com

Southeast Asia

EU toughens sanctions against Burma
By Brian Kenety

BRUSSELS - European Union (EU) foreign affairs ministers and the EU Commission have agreed to implement a range of ''restrictive measures'' against Burma, including strengthening an existing visa ban and freezing assets held abroad by persons to whom the ban applies.

The so-called General Affairs Council has adopted a regulation prohibiting the sale, supply and export to Burma of equipment ''which might be used for internal repression or terrorism'' and the freezing of the funds of ''certain persons related to important governmental functions in that country''. The regulation, adopted Monday without debate, comes just before the 10-year anniversary of the Burmese military junta annulled elections.

The Council's move is effectively a rubber stamp approving an April 26 decision to extend until October 29, 2000, the EU Common Position on Burma urging authorities there ''to respect human rights, restore democracy and engage in a dialogue with the opposition that could lead to national reconciliation in a united and democratic state''.

May 27 this year marks the 10th anniversary of the last free elections in Burma. The clear victor of the 1990 elections was the National League for Democracy (NLD), led by Aung San Suu Kyi, the daughter of an opposition leader. The NLD garnered more than 80 percent of the parliamentary seats contested, but the Burmese military junta refused to honor the results. Exercising power through a front party, State Law and Order Restoration Council, the military annulled the election, claiming foreign agents had fixed the results.

Aung San Suu Kyi, who went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize, spent more than five years under house arrest for speaking out against the self-imposed military government in Rangoon, which has since renamed itself the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC).

According to a source within the EU Commission, a list of over 100 names, including the SPDC chairman General Than Shwe, his deputy general, cabinet members, and all senior officials in all ministries, will be included in the ban. The names are due to be published in the Official Journal of the Union this week.

US President Bill Clinton on May 18 extended the national emergency, originally declared May 20, 1997 because the ''large-scale repression of democratic opposition by the government of Burma continues to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.'' The United States maintains a ban on new investment in Burma. Chris Patten, EU Commissioner for External Affairs, noted in a speech before the Council of Europe that the union exercises its ''economic muscle to promote human rights'' with ad hoc and ''preferably targeted sanctions'' in Burma, where the EU operates a travel ban on visas for senior members of the regime.

However, according to a report released Monday by the Washington, DC-based group EarthRights International (ERI), forced labor and other human rights abuses associated with building natural gas pipelines in Burma continue with the knowledge of US and European corporations, which partially own and manage the projects. ERI said the oil companies Unocal (US), Total (France) and Premier (Britain) were aware that forced labor was likely to be used before they began operations in Burma. The 180-page report is based on first-hand testimony gathered between 1995 and 2000 from several hundred villagers, including Burmese army deserters, who claim to either have been victims or witnesses to recent abuse.

According to the London-based human rights group Amnesty International (AI), the Burma Army continues to seize civilians for forced labor duties throughout the country. ''Hundreds of thousands of ethnic minority civilians have been forcibly removed from their ancestral lands without compensation,'' said AI in an April 12 news release. ''Some 1,500 political prisoners remain in Burma jails in appalling conditions, and torture remains widespread in Burma's secret military intelligence centers.''

A ''technical cooperation'' delegation of the International Labour Organization (ILO) is to travel to Rangoon Wednesday to discuss the implementation of the body's recommendations against forced labor. At a May 12 meeting of Southeast Asian labor ministers in the Philippines, Burma reportedly agreed to receive the ILO delegation without preconditions.

In ''an action unprecedented in the ILO's 80-year history,'' the organization's governing body announced March 29 it had set in motion a discussion in its June 2000 Conference, ''which could result in an appeal to its other 174 member states to review their relationship with the government of Burma and to take appropriate measures to ensure that Burma cannot take advantage of such relations to perpetuate or extend the system of forced or compulsory labor practiced against the country's citizens''.

An updated report by the ILO Director-General Juan Somavia examined new evidence of the situation and concluded that an order issued by the government of Burma on May 14, 1999 does not exclude the imposition of forced labor in violation of the convention, and ''in actual practice, forced or compulsory labor continues to be imposed in a widespread manner.''

The ILO report detailed instances of forced labor imposed especially by the military in contradiction to the government's assertion that forced labor is never applied in the country. Burma citizens have been forced to do portering, to cultivate food for the army, to act as messengers, sentries and builders and for a variety of other duties, including harsh work on railroads, canals and other infrastructure development. ''It also includes forced sex for the military,'' said the ILO. Failure to comply with the demands of the military authorities can and have resulted in the arrest and torture of those resisting, said the organization.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), accepted Burma as a member in 1997, leading the EU that year to suspend what would have been the third Asean-EU Ministerial meeting (AEMM).

An EU-Asean meeting of ''senior officials'' is due to be held next month in Portugal, which holds the rotating EU Presidency until June 30, however, the Burmese government will not be allowed to attend. In what is seen as a concession to Asean, the EU has agreed to Rangoon's articipation in the upcoming AEMM, to be held in an Asian country in October. Thailand currently serves as EU-Asean coordinator. Laos has expressed interest in hosting the October AEMM meeting.

(Inter Press Service)

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