US SANCTIONS NOTABLE ,BUT INSUFFICI

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Subject: US SANCTIONS NOTABLE ,BUT INSUFFICIENT


29/5
                                       US sanctions
                                       notable, but
                                       insufficient

                                         By CESAR CHELALA
                                       (c) Earth Times News Service 




              resident Clinton's announcement of sanctions against the Burmese
              military junta is a welcome action by the US Administration.
         However, significant as this move is, it is insufficient to truly
promote
         change in that country unless coordinated as an international
response to
         the human rights abuses of the Burmese junta. A course of stricter
         sanctions, as proposed by Senators Mitch McConnell and Daniel P.
         Moynihan, should be followed.

         The ban on new US investments comes a a time when an estimated 260
         opposition figures, many of them elected representatives of the
National
         League for Democracy (NLD) party, are under detention and that party's
         leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, is subject to persistent intimidation. With
         positions hardened on both the government and the opposition side,
         international support is now critical for Aung San Suu Kyi and for her
         hopes of restoring democracy to her country.

         Following the 1990 election--which Aung San Suu Kyi's party won by an
         overwhelming majority--a systematic pattern of human rights abuses
by the
         military has taken place in Burma, including arbitrary imprisonment and
         torture, forced relocation and persecution of minorities. These
actions are
         responsible for the exodus of hundreds of thousands of people to nearby
         countries.

         Although the Burmese military is trying to impose a veneer of
normalcy in
         Burma, there is continuous opposition to its rule. In recent years, the
         military regime has opened the economy and eagerly sought foreign
         investment, while at the same time keeping a tight control on domestic
         political expression, in the hopes that protests would wane and the
main
         opposition party, the NLD, would become marginalized.

         The policy of "constructive engagement" promoted by ASEAN (the seven
         member Association of South-East Asian Nations) has clearly failed.
         Supported in their belief that international recognition and normal
trade of
         intimidating the opposition and abusing human rights. Nobel Peace Prize
         laureate Desmond Tutu has remarked that years of constructive
         engagement has only given the SLORC the confidence to keep its
         oppressive rule. Last September, more than 500 members of the NLD
         party were arrested.

         The International Labor Organization (ILO) has accused Burma of using
         forced labor to guard the Unocal/Total oil pipeline, a joint
American and
         French investment, and there is evidence that the military has
leveled towns
         located along the pipeline construction path. Many uprooted
villagers have
         been forced to work for the military.

         The UN and several international human rights organizations have
         denounced the Burmese junta's use of forced labor to upgrade the
         country's infrastructure. Since late 1989, more than 500,000 people
have
         been forcibly moved from their homes to resettlement towns built by the
         military.

         Following international protests and boycotts by pressure groups,
several
         transnational companies have pulled out of the country (the most
recent to
         withdraw is Pepsico Inc.), indicating a definite change in the
international
         community's attitude toward the military junta. These positive changes
         could be further strengthened by more decisive moves by the US
         Administration. Aung San Suu Kyi has repeatedly declared that no
         business that wants to exert moral leverage should be engaged in Burma,
         and she manifested her support for the boycotts against the junta.

         The US government should continue to try developing a coordinated
         response with its European and Asian allies to bar further
international
         investment in that country. The struggle against South Africa's
apartheid
         regime succeeded because of coordinated international resolve. That
same
         resolve should now be shown in opposition to the Burmese junta. Such
         actions would give additional support to Aung San Suu Kyi and increase
         the possibilities of democracy returning to Burma. Perhaps then
Aung San
         Suu Kyi's words will prove to have been prophetic. At one of the
         weekend meetings in her house, addressing her followers, she remarked,
         "The military will not defeat us. After all, the only thing they
have is their
         guns."

         Cesar Chelala, co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award
         for the best article on human rights, writes frequently on foreign
affairs.