US
gives green light to investment in
Myanmar By Carey L Biron
WASHINGTON - In a highly anticipated
confirmation, the United States on Thursday
announced that it would be significantly rolling
back bilateral economic restrictions that have
been in place on Myanmar for a decade and a half.
The move will not affect a pre-existing
arms embargo or an import ban, nor are US
businesses allowed to conduct business with
military-linked entities or individuals. But it
will allow US companies to restart investment in
Myanmar for the first time since 1997, following
on a year of reforms by a new quasi-civilian
government.
Observers, meanwhile, are
warning that the necessary protections are not yet
in place, though the US business community
"applauded" the announcement.
The
sanctions were imposed 15 years ago in response to gross
human-rights abuses by
the then-military government. Following Thursday's
announcement, many were quick to point out that
such abuses are in fact continuing apace in
Myanmar, which the US still refers to as Burma.
"The reality is the Burmese military's
escalating assault against the Kachin ethnic
minority in northern Burma continues unabated and
unnoticed," the US Campaign for Burma said in a
statement following the announcement. "Their
brutal military offensive has resulted in nearly
100,000 refugees who are hiding in makeshift
shelters."
Those sentiments were echoed by
some within the US government.
"We know so
little about the actual impact of political
changes made by the ruling junta in the past year,
and until we see more evidence of change, I am
adamantly opposed to rolling back the only
leverage that we possess in that country," said
the chair of the US House of Representatives
Foreign Affairs Committee, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.
In recent weeks, several groups, including
Human Rights Watch, have asked the US not to lift
the sanctions regime until specific safeguards are
put in place.
On May 10, the United
Nationalities Federal Council, an umbrella body of
ethnic groups in Myanmar, likewise publicly
requested the international community "not to
suspend or lift the remaining sanctions but to
wait and see if the [Myanmar army] does not stop
its military offensives in Kachin State by June
10, 2012."
Human-rights groups are now
warning that Washington is moving too quickly,
offering a massive reward to a military-dependent
government that has enacted reforms that have yet
to reach the majority of marginalized communities
in the impoverished country. "The US
administration's policy is 'action for action' -
rewarding positive action on the part of Burma's
government," Thelma Young, with the US Campaign
for Burma, told Inter Press Service (IPS). "But
there are no measures in place to combat the
negative actions that are still taking place.
We're worried that this new move will fuel human
rights abuses in the ongoing conflict zones in
Burma."
The US and other Western countries
have already made several initial tweaks to
longstanding policies aimed at isolating Myanmar.
While the US has twice this year made
minor adjustments to the sanctions regime,
Thursday's announcement is by far the most
significant in the ongoing normalization of
relations. Also on Thursday, President Barack
Obama named Derek Mitchell, until recently the
US's special envoy on Myanmar, as ambassador to
the country, the first time in more than two
decades that such a position has existed.
Due diligence Against the
backdrops of the reforms process, Washington in
recent months has seen a steadily increasing
drumbeat for a lifting of US sanctions. This week
alone, two senators with long Myanmar experience,
John McCain and Jim Webb, forcefully reiterated
such calls.
On Tuesday, opposition leader
Aung San Suu Kyi expressed tentative backing for
McCain's suggestion that the US suspend - rather
than eliminate - all sanctions but the arms
embargo. Doing so would allow for the sanctions to
be reappraised, and potentially reactivated, at a
later date. The European Union has made a similar
move.
Still, Suu Kyi warned that Western
countries shouldn't be too optimistic, and the
method by which the US government went about
rolling back the restrictions seems to bear out
this caution, at least in part.
On
Thursday morning, Obama went forward with an
annual reauthorization of an emergency executive
order that has allowed for the imposition of
sanctions. However, by the afternoon, following a
meeting with Myanmar Foreign Minister U Wunna
Maung Lwin, who is currently in Washington, US
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced a
selective waiver of that executive order.
"We will be keeping relevant laws on the
books as an insurance policy, but our goal is to
move as rapidly as we can to expand business and
investment opportunities," Clinton said. "We will
keep our eyes wide open to try to ensure that
anyone who abuses human rights or obstructs
reforms or engages in corruption do not benefit
financially from increased trade and investment
with the United States, including companies owned
or operated by the military."
In addition,
the secretary of state noted that the US
government would "expect US firms to conduct due
diligence to avoid any problems, including human
rights abuses".
For many observers,
however, such policies, while well-meaning, add up
to very little protection on the ground. US
investors, meanwhile, could end up doing business
with noted human-rights abusers, accidentally or
otherwise.
"After decades of military
rule, business is inextricably linked with the
military in Burma," Thelma Young warns, noting
that often-times such linkages are well hidden.
Relying on "due diligence" by US corporate
interests also doesn't engender much optimism.
"The US is simply not going to be able to
oversee this well enough," she says. "While the
government wants to encourage US businesses to
follow economic and social practices, it has no
way to ensure that this actually happens."
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