EU Maintains Burma Sanctions

By Burma Campaign UK • April 12, 2011

Burma Campaign UK today welcomed the decision by EU Foreign Ministers to renew European Union (EU) economic sanctions on Burma for a further year.

EU Foreign Ministers met today to make the Council Decision on EU Burma policy, which has to be renewed once a year. There were no major changes.

“We are pleased that the EU has maintained economic sanctions,” said Anna Roberts, Executive Director at Burma Campaign UK. “The EU should now engage with the National League for Democracy to set benchmarks, such as the release of all political prisoners, which must be met before any economic sanctions are lifted. The sanctions the EU have imposed are a tool which can be used to promote dialogue and human rights, but so far the EU has left them in the toolbox. Setting benchmarks is a vital next step to get sanctions working for change.”

Germany and Italy have been using the pretext of the sham elections and release of Aung San Suu Kyi to try to persuade the EU to lift economic sanctions on Burma. Germany in particular has companies wanting to expand their business in Burma. “Once again Germany and Italy have been putting commercial interests before human rights in Burma,” said Anna Roberts.

The EU agreed two new measures which they hope will promote dialogue with the dictatorship. The ban on EU ministers and heads of state visiting Burma has been lifted temporarily, for one year. This has been under consideration since 2008. Burma Campaign UK has long called for higher level political engagement with the dictatorship in Burma. Twenty years experience has shown that sending low-level envoys from the UN, EU and other countries does not work. However, given that the EU is already sending conflicting messages to the dictatorship, we are concerned that with twenty-seven different ministers possibly visiting Burma, this problem will only get worse. The EU must agree common talking points to ensure consistency of messages. Burma Campaign UK understands that all EU ministers will visit Aung San Suu Kyi each time they go to Burma.

The EU has also made small changes to the visa ban list. Civilian members of the dictatorship have been added to the visa ban list as usual, but the implementation of this will be suspended for the time being. This appears to be a compromise which represents a climbdown by some EU members which wanted no ministers in the ‘new’ government to be added to the visa ban list.

The Foreign Minister of Burma has had implementation of the visa ban suspended for one year, again to promote dialogue.

Burma Campaign UK is very disappointed that EU Foreign Ministers failed to publicly support a UN Commission of Inquiry into war crimes and crimes against humanity in Burma, as recommended by the UN Special Rapporteur on Burma. This failure will reinforce the dictatorship’s sense of impunity at a time when it is breaking ceasefires and targeting civilians in ethnic states in Burma.

Burma Campaign UK is also concerned that yet again European Commission officials are actively attempting to undermine the official EU position on Burma because they do not personally agree with the policy. This is evidenced by one EU official speaking to the AP news service yesterday, and trying to spin that the EU was relaxing sanctions, even though there is no significant change to sanctions, and economic sanctions have not been relaxed.

“The EU has sent a clear message today that there has been no significant improvement in the situation in Burma, and so sanctions will be maintained,” said Anna Roberts. “The EU has also made clear it is willing to step up dialogue and respond positively to genuine improvements if they were to happen. It is now up to the dictatorship to take positive steps, but given that they are stepping up military attacks against ethnic minorities, sadly, this appears unlikely.”

Since the elections last November the human rights situation in Burma has deteriorated, with the dictatorship breaking ceasefires in Karen State and Shan State, forcing tens of thousands of people to flee their homes.

The Foreign Ministers Council Conclusions can be viewed here.

The comments on the renewal by the British Foreign Secretary can be viewed here.

A detailed background briefing on the EU and Burma is available here.

For more information contact Anna Roberts on 07950849529.

Note:

Although the EU has not introduced the kind of strong targeted sanctions that Burma’s democracy movement has been calling for, Burma’s generals regularly complain about those sanctions that do exist, demonstrating that they are having an impact. The first sanctions that had any significant impact stopping revenue going to Burma’s generals and their cronies were only introduced in March 2008. These sanctions included an import ban on gems and timber. Friends of the Earth has exposed loopholes in these sanctions.