There has been widespread coverage that the UK government has called for new sanctions to be imposed on the regime in Rangoon. The government has in fact asked for limited measures, such as visa bans, that were imposed by the previous Conservative administration to be extended.
The discouragement of trade and tourism cannot be considered sanctions, as it does not prevent private companies from pursuing business in Burma.
Burma’s pro-democracy leader and Nobel laureate, Aung San Suu Kyi, has always deemed sanctions to be economic instruments preventing investment and trade with Burma. The Government’s current position is far from this definition of sanctions and recent reporting is extremely misleading.
John Jackson, a Director of Burma Action Group says: “It is ironic that just as the European Union is taking action at the World Trade Organisation to dismantle effective sanctions put in place by the US state of Massachusetts against Burma, that a call for visa restrictions by the UK is being heralded as new European sanctions”.
Burma Campaign UK