TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
US mulls more sanctions on Myanmar
The US government said it could impose more sanctions on Myanmar over unfairness in the reclusive state’s upcoming elections that have barred opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from running for office
Change Size
T
he US government said it could impose more sanctions on Myanmar over unfairness in the reclusive state’s upcoming elections that have barred opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from running for office.
The first election in two decades in Myanmar has been boycotted and defied as a sham by opposition party National League for Democracy (NLD), as the poll regulation requires political parties to expel members who have spent time in prison. The Myanmar junta has imprisoned more than 2,000 political prisoners.
“We have been quite critical of the election law and we regard it as unhelpful. It makes it difficult if not impossible to make this election free or fair or credible at all because they forced not only the NLD but other parties to expel any members who were in prison,” Scot Marciel, the US Ambassador to ASEAN, told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.
“The NLD has a large number of its leaders in prison, and [the regulation] has forced the NLD and other parties into a very difficult position ... We read it as a statement that [the Myanmar government] is not going to pursue national reconciliation through this election process.”
The US has slapped economic sanctions on Myanmar, blacklisting regime cronies and certain companies from doing business with US entities. The EU agreed on Monday to extend its own sanctions, including travel bans for those responsible for jailing Suu Kyi, although they have impacted little on Myanmar, which has been ruled by a military regime since 1990.
Yangon has maintained good economic relations with its two giant neighbors, China and India.
“We have maintained our sanctions and we certainly have the option [of imposing more sanctions] and we have not taken that option off the table,” Marciel said.
Marciel and other US envoys visited Myanmar and met Suu Kyi and Myanmar Prime Minister Thein Sein last November in a meeting the US said was an exchange of views. Marciel said the junta did not lay out any conditions on which they would be willing to carry out reforms or release prisoners in the first high-level meeting between US and Myanmar in the last 14 years.
“We did not expect a dramatic outcome from [the visit], and in fact there were no dramatic outcomes from it,” he said.
“They talked mostly about their own economic development plan, their plan for the elections, and we offered some thoughts on how it was very important to move [ahead with] the national reconciliation, and carry out some reforms to improve the human rights situation.”
Marciel said he and other US officials had not ruled out the possibility of visiting Myanmar before or shortly after the elections if “it would be helpful”.
He said the US government would discuss Myanmar with other ASEAN member states, since both the US and ASEAN had roles to play. The US visit last November was organized without involving ASEAN member states.
“Our decision to go there is not to say ASEAN has no role, it was just that we are trying to play our role. We talk regularly to our friends in ASEAN about the situation in Burma.”
