Meeting of the dictators: Hun Xen visiting Than ShweSmarter sanctions against the Burmese generals after their latest sentence of Suu Kyi.
AUGUST 13, 2009
The Wall Street Journal
Tuesday's sentencing by a Burmese court of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to three years of hard labor is a fresh reminder of the ruling junta's cruelty. That the sentence was then magnanimously reduced to an 18-month extension of her house arrest is a reminder of its cynicism.
Ms. Suu Kyi is Burma's rightful prime minister, having been elected in a vote overturned by the junta in 1990. The latest verdict ensures that the regime will get through parliamentary elections scheduled for next year without her participation. It's also a signal to the world that the junta isn't about to reach for any reset buttons, even as the Obama administration attempts to do so through a policy review that has being dragging on since February.
As the Obama team ponders its position, it's useful to consider the policies that have come before. The United States has imposed investment sanctions on Burma since 1997. Those sanctions have multiplied along with the junta's brutality. In 2003, after an assassination attempt on Ms. Suu Kyi, Congress passed the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act which banned imports from Burma into the U.S. In 2008, following violent suppression of the previous year's peaceful "saffron revolution," the JADE act placed sanctions on Burmese gems. President George W. Bush also signed targeted financial sanctions aimed at individuals in the Burmese military elite and their associated businesses.
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