EU threatens sanction against Burma

EU threatens sanctions against Myanmar if opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi is not freed

September 13 (AP) - The European Union threatened Myanmar's military leaders on Monday with new sanctions unless they free opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest by the time an EU-Asia summit opens on Oct. 8.

The 25 EU foreign ministers said the human rights situation in Myanmar,
also known as Burma, "has not improved significantly and continues to
give rise to grave concern."

The ministers said that if 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Suu Kyi is still in custody when the two-day summit opens in Hanoi, Vietnam, the EU will expand its current visa ban for senior Myanmar officials and their families.

The EU also wants Suu Kyi's pro-democracy party to be given a role in writing a new constitution.

The ministers have already agreed on other sanctions unless Suu Kyi is freed: banning EU firms from financing companies in Myanmar and voting
against such funding from international organizations.

The EU will also boost aid for health and education projects in Myanmar through non-governmental organizations, and will make efforts to help eradicate illegal logging in the country, the EU foreign ministers said in a statement.

The threat of additional sanctions is a face-saving gesture. Initially, the EU had objected to Myanmar attending the Hanoi summit at all because of its human rights record.

However, Asian nations countered that if Myanmar was barred from the meeting, they would veto attendance by Malta, Cyprus and 10 East European nations that joined the EU in May.

The European Union was left with few options but to threaten new sanctions and say its leaders will use the Hanoi summit "to confront Burma with (Europe's) concerns on human rights and the need for democratic reforms."

The foreign ministers said the EU "expects" Gen. Khin Nyunt, Myanmar's prime minister, to send a lower-level representative to the meeting instead of appearing himself.

Britain was the most vocal opponent of Myanmar attending the Hanoi summit of ASEM, which groups the 25 EU members and a dozen Asian countries, including Japan, South Korea and China.

The Netherlands, which holds the rotating EU presidency, worked hard for the summit to take place while pushing the message that Myanmar is a pariah nation as long as it cracks down on pro-democracy forces.

The human rights dispute has already led to the cancellation of meetings
between EU and Asian finance and economic affairs ministers.

But officials said canceling the Hanoi summit would be detrimental to Europe's efforts to boost relations with a region that is experiencing an economic boom, driven by formidable growth in China.

The EU foreign ministers reiterated the "great importance" Europe attaches to relations with Asia, adding that "at the same time, the European Unionis committed to democratic change in Burma, as well as the ongoing humanitarian assistance to the people of Burma."

The EU has imposed a travel ban on Myanmar's military leaders and frozen their financial assets in Europe to add muscle to the demand they free Suu Kyi and ease their crackdown on her National League for Democracy party, which won the 1990 elections.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner has been detained since May last year, following a violent clash between her followers and a pro-government
mob in northern Myanmar.

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