Burma exiles urge further US sanction
Updated: 21:25, Tuesday April 24, 2012
The European Union's suspension of economic sanctions against
Burma has riled exiled activists, who are urging the United States to
press for further reforms before following suit.
The activists'
opposition has exposed differences with democracy leader Aung San Suu
Kyi, whose cause they have championed for more than two decades.
Suu
Kyi endorsed the EU move during a visit by British Prime Minister
David Cameron to Rangoon this month. They say changes have yet to
affect the lives of most citizens and rampant rights abuses continue.
'The
EU has suspended sanctions knowing that its own benchmarks on Burma
have not been met: the unconditional release of all political prisoners
and a cessation of attacks against ethnic minorities,' Soe Aung of the
Forum for Democracy in Burma said by email from Thailand. He accused
the bloc of rushing to reward 'murky reforms'.
'It's illogical and a little hypocritical,' Aung said.
While
the influence of activists who escaped the country in the years
following a 1988 crackdown on democracy protesters is waning as the
country opens up, they remain players in the debate. Last week, a group
were lobbying opinion-makers in Washington, including at the State
Department and the World Bank.
They say foreign investment before
rule of law is established in the impoverished country would do more
harm than good and benefit only the military and its cronies who
dominate the most lucrative sectors of the economy.
The Obama
administration has taken the concerns seriously. While the US has led
the charge in engaging Burma, it is moving more slowly than the EU in
lifting sanctions. It is upgrading diplomatic ties and plans to allow
US investment in some sectors, but only in areas it judges would
benefit the broader population.
Congressional committees that
oversee US policy toward Asia will take up the issue this week, hearing
testimony by senior officials from the State Department, the US Agency
for International Development and the Treasury Department.
Khin Ohmar, co-ordinator of Burma Partnership, a coalition of
pro-democracy activists based in several Asian countries, said despite
relaxation of restrictions on media and peaceful protests, the military
still can act with impunity.
'People talk about President Thein
Sein being reform-minded. That may be true. There's always been
reform-minded people, even under the repressive system. But what we
need in Burma is institutional changes, not changes based on
personalities,' she said in Washington.
She said the litmus test
of political reform would be 2015 national elections, when the
military's control of parliament will be challenged. Even after winning
43 of the 45 seats contested in recent special elections, Suu Kyi's
party still controls fewer than seven per cent of the seats, and
refused to take them up when parliament convened on Monday due to a
dispute over a single word in the oath of office, a sign of the
formidable hurdles that remain in political reconciliation.
Western
governments maintain it is important to act now to reward the Thein
Sein government, to weaken the hand of conservatives in the military
who oppose the democratic reforms.
The EU on Monday announced it
was suspending most of its sanctions, except an arms embargo, for six
months to a year while it assesses the country's progress.
Posted by BCJP
on Tuesday, April 24, 2012. Filed under
