Calls are growing for an end to Western sanctions against Myanmar, but experts say a shift in policy is unlikely without progress on human rights and the support of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyii.
The Nobel Peace laureate’s release last November following Myanmar’s first election in 20 years has reignited debate over the effectiveness of the punitive measures, enforced by the US and the EU in response to the junta’s human rights abuses.
“There’s a lot of internal debate going on among policymakers and a previously established and longstanding consensus is increasingly seeming brittle,” a Bangkok-based Western diplomat said.
Critics of the policy say sanctions, which have largely kept Western companies out of the country, are hindering development in one of the world’s poorest nations.
But the regime must still provide “something that is considered substantial, a step in the right direction,” before the West — highly critical of the election — will remove them, analyst Aung Naing Oo said.
Two of the pro-democracy parties that took part in last November’s elections have called for the lifting of all sanctions on the grounds that they do not benefit the wider population.
ASEAN, which includes Myanmar, and a group of the country’s main ethnic political parties have also urged an end to the measures, ahead of the new parliament’s opening next Sunday.
“It will be difficult to ignore all these calls for a change of policy,” said the diplomat, who did not want to be named.
Even Aung San Suu Kyii appears to have softened her stance and her party is reviewing its position on sanctions after years of firmly supporting them. She said last month that she wanted dialogue with the junta on sanctions.
“I don’t look at sanctions as a bargaining chip, but as a way of trying to improve the situation,” she said.
Experts say the backing of Aung San Suu Kyii would probably be crucial for an end to the measures.
“I am not sure if the EU and United States will be able to lift the sanctions without the input from Aung San Suu Kyii,” said Maung Zarni, a Myanmar research fellow at the London School of Economics. “Her views are considered reflective of public opinion.”
Aung San Suu Kyii was freed from house arrest on Nov. 13 after spending 15 of the past 21 years in detention.
Sanctions advocates say that five decades of mismanagement under military rule are to blame for the hardships in Myanmar rather than the measures themselves, which were designed to weaken the regime and its cronies. The US bans trade with companies tied to the junta, and also freezes such firms’ assets and blocks international loans to the state. The EU also has sanctions freezing assets and businesses of junta figures, as well as blacklisting their travel, but it has continued some trade and investment.
A spokeswoman for EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Catherine Ashton said the EU was “following the situation in Myanmar very closely ... [but] wants to see what the government will do,” notably in terms of rights.
Asian firms have overlooked the political situation and human rights abuses to invest in Myanmar’s ample natural treasures.
Zarni said the real push for lifting sanctions was coming from Western investors who “feel sanctions have deprived them,” and whose arguments are “couched in the language of [the] public well-being of Burmese people.”
Critics say the willingness of Asian countries to invest without conditions is precisely why sanctions are not working.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in