US President George W. Bush froze the assets of state-owned companies in Myanmar that he said are propping up the ruling junta.
“These companies, in industries such as gems and timber, exploit the labor of the downtrodden Burmese people, but enrich only the generals,” Bush said yesterday about Myanmar.
The new order allows the Bush administration to go after state-owned enterprises, which it previously lacked the authority to do. The US government already has taken the power to go after individuals and companies in Myanmar, which has been under military rule since 1962.
In remarks at the White House marking Asian Pacific American heritage month, Bush said the military regime in Myanmar continues to reject the will of its people to live under a system headed by people of their own choosing.
“Over the past eight months, my administration has tightened sanctions on the regime,” he said. “We’ve imposed visa bans on the junta’s generals and their families and their cronies, trying to send a clear message, and we hope the rest of the world follows as well.”
The junta took control in Myanmar in 1988.
Myanmar’s government has been widely criticized for human-rights abuses and suppression of pro-democracy parties such as the one led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been in prison or under house arrest for more than 12 of the last 18 years.
Last September, at least 31 people were killed and thousands more detained when the military cracked down on peaceful protests led by Buddhist monks and democracy advocates.
Dissidents in Myanmar and exile groups elsewhere have urged their countrymen to vote next Saturday in a referendum against a proposed constitution, which opponents say it is a ploy to perpetuate military rule. The junta scrapped the previous document when they took power.
“The people of Burma have long awaited the opportunity to live in a true democracy,” Bush said. “The referendum vote scheduled for May 10, 2008, could have been that opportunity. However, Than Shwe and his regime are ensuring that the referendum vote will be on a dangerously flawed constitution, and will not be free, fair or credible.”
Bush said the military government continues to ignore calls from the Burmese people and the international community for a process that could result in a legitimate constitution.
“They continue to carry out a campaign to intimidate voters and to arrest those who dare speak out against the flaws of the referendum and draft constitution,” he said.
The US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control issued an order against Myanmar Gem Enterprise, Myanmar Pearl Enterprise and Myanmar Timber Enterprise, companies owned or controlled by the state, US Treasury Department spokesman John Rankin said.
The action means that any assets found in the US belonging to the three companies are blocked. Americans are prohibited from doing business with them.
The rationale behind designating the three companies is that they are an important source of money for the junta, Rankin said.
Meanwhile, hundreds of government workers in Myanmar were forced to vote in favor of an army-drafted constitution in non-secret ballots, held more than a week before a May 10 referendum, some of the workers said.
In one of the cases, about 700 employees in the Ministry of Electric Power-2’s Yangon office were forced to tick their ballot papers with local referendum officials observing, witnesses said.
“We were all shocked and some people were furious but they couldn’t do anything,” said one of those present on Wednesday, who did not want to be identified for fear of recrimination.
“They said those who wanted to vote ‘no’ had to hand in their resignation,” the worker said.
Civil servants in government ministries in Naypyidaw, the new capital, also reported advance voting in which they were forced to endorse the charter.
“They even told us to ensure that all our family members vote ‘yes.’ I’m really angry with myself because I couldn’t do anything,” said one of them, an educated middle-ranking officer.
“I have to stick it out because of my family. I’ve never felt more humiliated in about 20 years service here. I really wish I had voted ‘no,’” he said.
Auschwitz survivor Eva Schloss, the stepsister of teenage diarist Anne Frank and a tireless educator about the horrors of the Holocaust, has died. She was 96. The Anne Frank Trust UK, of which Schloss was honorary president, said she died on Saturday in London, where she lived. Britain’s King Charles III said he was “privileged and proud” to have known Schloss, who cofounded the charitable trust to help young people challenge prejudice. “The horrors that she endured as a young woman are impossible to comprehend and yet she devoted the rest of her life to overcoming hatred and prejudice, promoting kindness, courage, understanding
US President Donald Trump on Friday said Washington was “locked and loaded” to respond if Iran killed protesters, prompting Tehran to warn that intervention would destabilize the region. Protesters and security forces on Thursday clashed in several Iranian cities, with six people reported killed, the first deaths since the unrest escalated. Shopkeepers in Tehran on Sunday last week went on strike over high prices and economic stagnation, actions that have since spread into a protest movement that has swept into other parts of the country. If Iran “violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to
‘DISRESPECTFUL’: Katie Miller, the wife of Trump’s most influential adviser, drew ire by posting an image of Greenland in the colors of the US flag, captioning it ‘SOON’ US President Donald Trump on Sunday doubled down on his claim that Greenland should become part of the US, despite calls by the Danish prime minister to stop “threatening” the territory. Washington’s military intervention in Venezuela has reignited fears for Greenland, which Trump has repeatedly said he wants to annex, given its strategic location in the arctic. While aboard Air Force One en route to Washington, Trump reiterated the goal. “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it,” he said in response to a reporter’s question. “We’ll worry about Greenland in
PERILOUS JOURNEY: Over just a matter of days last month, about 1,600 Afghans who were at risk of perishing due to the cold weather were rescued in the mountains Habibullah set off from his home in western Afghanistan determined to find work in Iran, only for the 15-year-old to freeze to death while walking across the mountainous frontier. “He was forced to go, to bring food for the family,” his mother, Mah Jan, said at her mud home in Ghunjan village. “We have no food to eat, we have no clothes to wear. The house in which I live has no electricity, no water. I have no proper window, nothing to burn for heating,” she added, clutching a photograph of her son. Habibullah was one of at least 18 migrants who died
RSS