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US says 'no' to lifting sanctions on junta
Irrawaddy - January 26, 2011
The United States will not consider lifting economic sanctions against Burma unless the country's military rulers recognize opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party and release political prisoners, according to a senior US diplomat.
Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Joseph Y. Yun told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday that the Burmese regime should hold a dialogue with Suu Kyi, and release the more than 2,000 political prisoners held around the country – preconditions for the US to consider lifting economic sanctions imposed against the Burmese regime for its human rights violations.
His comment came more than a week after the foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and an alliance of five ethnic political parties in Burma called for an end to Western economic sanctions against Burma.
During their recent meeting in Lombok, Indonesia, the Asean ministers referred to Burma's controversial parliamentary elections and the release of Suu Kyi as "developments," which they said the international community should positively respond to.
In their call for the lifting of Western economic sanctions, Asean foreign ministers voiced all the same requests to the Burmese regime as the US demands, Yun was quoted as saying.
"These are excellent demands from the Asean ministers, and I think the Myanmar authorities should really take them to heart and make them a reality," Yun said, adding that a positive US response would follow when the Burmese regime complies with the requests from the international community.
Last Friday in Washington, the State Department spokesman, P J Crowley, said that the Obama administration has no plan to lift sanctions as of now, and that its sanctions are specifically targeted against the leaders of the Burmese military junta, its cronies and business groups that support them – and not against the people of Burma.
"At this point, no," Crowley told reporters when asked if there is any move to lift the sanctions.
"This is an issue that we regularly discuss with stakeholders – the effectiveness and the impact of our sanctions. Our sanctions are specifically targeted against those most responsible for denying democracy and disregarding human rights in Burma," Crowley said.
"We have concerns about the people of Burma, but it is the Burmese regime that is fully responsible for the country's dire economic situation. They are the ones who have institutionalized corruption and they are the ones who have plundered natural resources," he said.
"We maintain sanctions in order to press authorities to take concrete actions on issues of core concern to the international community, including democratic reform, release of political prisoners, and initiating a genuine dialogue with the democratic opposition and ethnic minority leaders," Crowley said.
Yun's call to the regime for the recognition of Suu Kyi's NLD came amid her lawyers proceeding with an appeal against last year's dissolution of the party following its decision not to run in parliamentary elections held on Nov. 7.
On Monday, the lawyers presented their arguments to the Supreme Court in Naypyidaw, but no decision was made by the court about whether it would hear Suu Kyi's latest appeal against the disbanding of the party.
In December, Suu Kyi met with Yun in Rangoon and discussed economic sanctions against Burma.
Since 2009, the Obama administration has initiated a senior-level diplomatic dialogue with the Burmese military leadership while continuing to keep sanctions as an important tool of US policy.
However, the Burmese regime has made no tangible positive response. As the country prepares to convene its first session of Parliament in 22 years at the end of this month, more than 2,000 political prisoners remain behind bars in Burma. The Parliament will be dominated by pro-military lawmakers who won in last year's controversial polls.
[The Irrawaddy correspondent Lalit K. Jha contributed to this article from Washington.]
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