Sanctions against Burma must be more effective

By Norwegian Burma Committee • June 24, 2010

More trade with Burma will not help the people with the current regime, says democracy activist Khin Ohmar. – The only thing that can make the situation better in Burma is that the sanctions become more effective, says Ohmar to Ethical Trade Initiative Norway (ETI-Norway).

“Through our contact with refugees and migrant workers from Burma we know that business in the country does not benefit the people”, says Burmese Khin Ohmar to Ethical Trade Initiative Norway (ETI-Norway).

ETI has got a swift meeting with Ohmar as part of her hectic Europe tour. Ohmar is coordinator of the network organisation Burma Partnership. Her work is much about strengthening Burmese migrant workers, especially women, rights.

No belief in dialogue

Trade sanctions against Burma reduce jobs in potential export industry, but loss of jobs is not of great concern for Khin Ohmar. She does not believe that dialogue with the Burmese authorities will lead to anything.

“Sanctions can harm the people, as Aung San Suu Kyi also has said. But in Burma the sanctions have minimal effects on the people,” says Ohmar.

According to Ohmar, to lift the sanctions does not reflect the voice of the Burmese.

“I am worried when I hear rumours about this. The biggest problem with the sanctions today is that we lack international coordination and efficient surveillance. We want the sanctions to maintain and to make them more efficient as tools to influence the regime in Burma,” says Ohmar to ETI.

Demands for rights are not heard

Based on 20 years work with human and labour rights at the Thai-Burma border Khin Ohmar is of the opinion that it is impossible to do business in Burma in a responsible way which benefits the people. In 2010, thousands of workers in the textile industry around the commercial capital Rangoon have gone on strike and demanded better working conditions, higher salary and less overtime.

But demands for better working conditions do not give results.

“According to my sources the situation cannot be worse. They also say that the authorities are to blame, not the factory owners.”

She explains:

“It does not matter whether the factory owner is from Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan or Germany. We do hear that there are differences between owners in regard to how they treat the workers, but refugees tell us that even if the owners want to give the workers higher salary the authorities do not allow it,” says Ohmar.

Factories owned by foreigners are usually in a so-called ”joint venture” with the military junta.

Khin Ohmar lives at the border in Thailand where she meets thousands of countrymen and women who cross the border trying to find something to live of. Many become workers in the export industry for clothes and food. Only in Thailand there are three million Burmese migrant workers. According to Khin Ohmar the Burmese are seriously discriminated in Thailand. The organisation of Khin Ohmar has problems getting access to the factories, but they are able to find other ways to talk to the workers. Some lawyers in the area have specialized in legal advice for Burmese migrant workers.

When is boycott right?

ETI – Norway follow the same policy as Norwegian authorities. We usually recommend trade with development countries and growing economies. ETI’s opinion is that trade enhance development if the production includes decent working conditions and responsible environment management. ETI declaration of principles states that we only support boycott of some countries based on broad international agreement. Today these countries are Burma and West Sahara.

The Government follows the UN. This means that potential sanctions should be broadly anchored and preferably adopted by the UN Security Council. In the White Paper ”Corporate social responsibility in a global economy” (Report No. 10, 2008-2009) the Government makes it clear that it does not want to politicise Norwegian companies’ international engagement, nor develop rules for how they should handle problematic areas and countries. Burma and West Sahara are today the exceptions.

Ethical Trade Initiative Norway (ETI-Norway) is a resource centre and an advocate for ethical trade practices. We are established to help our members to solve the challenges linked to ethical trade and to strengthen the support for ethical trade.

Article originally appeared in Norwegian Burma Committee
View the Norwegian version of interview