EU in Burma sanctions extension

EU extends sanctions against Burma
By Tony Barber
Financial Times, 28 April 2009

The European Union on Monday extended sanctions against the military rulers of Burma in spite of growing doubts in the US and some EU countries about whether international sanctions are making any impact.

EU foreign ministers approved a 12-month extension of the sanctions on the grounds that the military junta had made next to no progress on democracy and human rights.

The sanctions, introduced three years ago, include a travel ban on Burma’s leaders, restrictions on European involvement with the country’s state-run companies and an embargo on arms sales.

A Europe-based Burmese diplomat said the EU should reconsider the sanctions because his country was preparing to hold multi-party elections next year. Governments in other Asian countries are also critical of the sanctions.

Hillary Clinton said in February, while making her first trip to Asia as US secretary of state, that Washington had concluded that neither sanctions nor efforts to engage with Burma had made any difference to the junta’s policies.

This view is shared by several EU governments, including Germany and Italy, which contend that the 27-nation bloc’s measures will never have much effect as long as China, in particular, refuses to join a broader sanctions regime.

However, the UK and other EU governments take the view that Burma’s domestic policies remain too repressive to justify a removal of the sanctions.

The EU’s foreign ministers, in a statement prepared for a meeting in Luxembourg, said: “The authorities of Myanmar [Burma] have still to take the steps necessary to make the planned 2010 elections a credible, transparent and inclusive process, based on international standards.”

The ministers renewed their call for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, the opposition leader and Nobel peace prize winner, and other political prisoners. However, they also signalled their willingness to have diplomatic contacts with Burmese officials at a meeting in Hanoi next month of Asian and EU foreign ministers. “The EU stands ready to respond positively to genuine progress in Myanmar,” they said.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009
The EU is to extend sanctions against Burma and renew calls for the release of political prisoners, including opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, April 2009. But at a GEAC meeting in Luxembourg, EU Foreign Ministers also signalled their readiness for high-level talks with Burmese military rulers.

• Primary Source

ESO: Background information: Burma: broadened and more targeted sanctions needed, say MEPs http://www.europeansources.info/record/burma-broadened-and-more-targeted-sanctions-needed-say-meps/

Council of the European Union: Press Release, 27.04.09: Council Conclusions on Burma/Myanmar http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/gena/107388.pdf

---