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US
Congress moves to put squeeze on Myanmar
 WASHINGTON
- US lawmakers are mobilizing to impose new sanctions on Myanmar after the
military junta's latest crackdown against 1991 Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi
and other opposition leaders, with some calling for "regime change" in the
rogue state.
A growing number of members of Congress support sanctions against the
authoritarian regime after repeated serious attacks on Suu Kyi and her
political party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), last week.
On Wednesday, Senate Majority Whip Mitch McConnell introduced the "Burmese
Freedom and Democracy Act of 2003". The bill imposes a US import ban on goods
manufactured in Myanmar.
Recent violence and detentions in the Southeast Asian country that culminated
in Suu Kyi's arrest last Saturday set off a wave of indignation that gives
fresh impetus to long-standing efforts by a number of Congress members to
impose sanctions on Myanmar.
"It is past time to hold the SPDC accountable for the many injustices it has
inflicted on the people of Burma," McConnell said on Tuesday in Congress. "It
is time for a regime change in Burma." The SPDC is the ruling State Peace and
Development Council; Burma is the old name for Myanmar, as the junta officially
renamed the country in 1989.
The new bill can be seen as another step in further isolating the military
junta economically. The administration of former president Bill Clinton imposed
a ban on new investment by US companies doing business in Myanmar in 1997, and
activists have urged a comprehensive ban on trade with the country.
The proposed ban on goods made in Myanmar would be in place until certain
conditions are met and certified by President George W Bush, including
measurable progress to end human-rights abuses, the release of all political
prisoners and the achievement of an agreement among the SPDC, the NLD and
ethnic minorities to transfer power to a popularly elected civilian government.
The legislation would also freeze the SPDC's assets in the United States, and
would expand a visa ban to former and present SPDC leaders. The bill requires
Washington to oppose and vote against loans or other assistance proposed for
Myanmar by international financial institutions, such as the World Bank. It
also encourages the secretary of state to promote greater awareness of the
SPDC's abuses.
In the House of Representatives, Tom Lantos, senior Democrat on the
International Relations Committee, also strongly condemned the ruling regime
and said he too is sponsoring legislation for an import ban. "With this brutal
action, Burma's thug regime has abandoned its international charm offensive and
showed its true nature," Lantos said.
The military junta has long been assailed by human-rights organizations as one
of the world's worst rights abusers. In 1990, it permitted an election in which
Suu Kyi and her NLD party won more than 80 percent of the vote, but the army
refused to recognize the results or transfer power. Instead, it initiated a
crackdown against the opposition and, since then, Suu Kyi has been repeatedly
put under house arrest.
In the wake of Myanmar's latest crackdown, Australian travel companies are
reviewing whether to suspend the tours they arrange to that country. Tour firms
that previously dismissed calls for a tourism boycott are now reconsidering
their policy. Others, such as the Australia-headquartered Intrepid Travel that
has offices in other Western markets, are taking a second look at plans to
restart tours to Myanmar, which is heavily reliant on tourism as a source of
badly needed foreign exchange.
The managing director of Captains Choice Tour, Phil Asker, believes that plans
to take a group of 200 people to Myanmar in November - each paying up to
US$7,300 - are now in doubt.
"I think we will sit back over the next few weeks and see what really happens.
But if the real crackdown has come, as it looks like it has, we will certainly
probably not go," Asker said. Plans for more extensive operations in Myanmar,
tentatively planned for next year, are now also in doubt. "We will certainly be
putting that on hold as well as we will be reviewing what we are going to do
there," Asker said.
Intrepid Travel, which also has offices in New Zealand, the United Kingdom,
Canada, the United States and and Belgium, is also reassessing its March
decision to recommence tours to Myanmar.
"There will certainly be a review ... we have a major senior-management meeting
coming up in a week, so I suspect it will be a fairly hot topic for that," said
Jen Bird, Intrepid Travel's international marketing manager.
The marketing manager of Melbourne-based Peregrine Adventures, Steve Roe,
believes the company will review the 20 tours scheduled for the next 18 months.
A prime consideration is the safety of its local operators and clients, given
the new tensions. Increasingly, however, tour companies have to face the issue
of political implications attached to their sending tourists to visit Myanmar.
The NLD supports the boycott of Myanmar as a travel destination.
Activists estimate that Myanmar received some 150,000 visitors in 2001, and the
figure is believed to have risen since then. Australia represents a target
regional market for Myanmar in the medium and long term.
In early March, Intrepid Travel announced that it was overturning its policy of
supporting a boycott on tours to Myanmar.
"Since 1999 there have been many political and economic changes in Myanmar that
have led to us reviewing our stance. These changes include the release from
arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi [in May 2002] and the ability of the NLD to gather
freely and have working offices where people can come and go," Darrell Wade, a
company director, wrote in defending that decision. In the wake of the latest
arrest of Suu Kyi and other NLD leaders as well as the shutting down of the
party's branch offices, groups such as Burma Campaign UK, which has lobbied
tourism companies to stay away from the country, hopes that Intrepid will
change its policy once more.
"Intrepid should return to the principled stand they made over the last few
years and suspend tours to Burma," said Anna Roberts, campaigns officer with
the Burma Campaign UK.
The travel companies all argue that foreign tours bring benefits to small
business operators that they have close personal and business ties with inside
Myanmar.
An aid worker, who recently returned from Myanmar and requested anonymity, said
he spoke to guesthouse owners and was surprised at their view of the NLD's
tourism boycott policy. "They said, 'You know, when journalists ask us those
questions, we say of course we want tourists to come, that's our business,
that's our livelihood,'" he said. "But they say, 'If they were to ask us a few
more questions, we'd actually give a different answer.'"
Roberts agreed that some Myanmese do benefit from tourism, but argued that the
costs are borne by the bulk of the population who work in the agricultural
sector.
"The NLD's position on tourism is a short-term policy intended to secure
long-term security and freedom for all the people of Burma ... Undermining the
NLD's policy helps only the junta and further delays true democratic change,"
she said.
When in May 1999 Intrepid announced that it would cease tours to Myanmar, it
acknowledged the symbolic value to the regime of travel companies ignoring the
boycott. "Being in Burma, with whatever mindset, provides implicit support for
the [regime's] 'Visit Myanmar' policy, and its deplorable associated practices
of slave labor and forced relocations," Intrepid wrote at the time.
Roe agrees. "That is a fair point, I can't argue against that because I think
they [the NLD] are right saying that," he said.
However, Peregrine is unwilling to back the boycott. "We don't think we are in
a position to be moral arbiters and decide where people should and shouldn't
go. Where do you draw the line if you want to base decisions on where people
travel on the human-rights policy of the government?" Roe asked.
The Australian labor movement's overseas aid organization, Union Aid
Abroad/Apheda, believes travel companies should respect the decision of
Myanmar's democracy movement.
"The NLD is the voice that we should be listening to. They are not just some
opposition party. They were voted in but they were never allowed to govern.
They are the legitimate representatives as far as we are concerned," said Marj
O'Callaghan, national program manager with Union Aid Abroad.
Roberts is hopeful that given the military crackdown, Intrepid and other travel
companies will lend their support to those in Myanmar struggling for basic
rights enjoyed in Australia. "Burma's democrats need every last bit of support
we can give them," Roberts said.
The violence against the opposition leader and the reported killing of several
people and injuries suffered by dozens more marked the latest in a series of
escalating attacks against Suu Kyi and the NLD. It was hoped that her release
from house arrest last year would intensify a dialogue that began when she was
still being held, but in recent months the opposition leader indicated those
efforts had not borne fruit.
Suu Kyi had been touring the country to meet her supporters. While tens of
thousands of people had turned out to greet her, the USDA had also mobilized
protests against her. She and at least 17 NLD officials were detained after a
clash in the town of Ye-u on May 30.
"This is the regime's most serious crackdown on democracy in years," said Aung
Din, director of policy for the Free Burma Coalition, in a statement. "This
latest outrage proves yet again that Burma's regimes has lied to the
international community and lied to the Burmese people."
Suu Kyi has a number of powerful defenders in the US Congress, who
co-introduced the new legislation this week.
"Although in general I do not support the use of trade embargoes as an
effective instrument of foreign policy, in certain circumstances and when faced
with certain conditions I believe they are necessary and proper and can, in
fact, provide effective leverage," Senator Dianne Feinstein said on Wednesday.
"Burma, I believe, is such a case and an import ban is a proper and much needed
step to take."
A ban would also be in line with the decision of 40 US companies to boycott
Myanmese products. Under pressure from consumers, so many firms have banned
clothing manufactured in Myanmar that US imports from the nation dropped 28
percent in the past year - a sharp reversal compared with a previous surge in
imports.
Suu Kyi has repeatedly called for foreign businesses to avoid Myanmar, saying
that sanctions "send a strong political and economic message" to its
dictatorship.
(Inter Press Service)
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