US Congressman Joe Crowley led a bipartisan introduction of a bill yesterday to renew America’s targeted sanctions against Burma’s military regime by extending the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act, a statement said.
Crowley’s effort to obtain a sanctions renewal came two weeks after the European Union renewed its own targeted Burma sanctions.
After introducing the legislation, Crowley, a six-term Democrat representative from New York, issued a statement in which he said: “It is abundantly clear that we need tougher, and a more robust application of, sanctions on Burma, and we need to start soon because the Burmese regime continues to commit crimes against humanity and war crimes against its people.”
He also expressed his concern that Burma’s military rulers had “completely rejected true co-operation” with Aung San Suu Kyi and the National League for Democracy to whom he referred as the “legitimate leaders of Burma”.
As the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act was endorsed by powerful politicians from both Democratic and Republican parties it is very likely that the bill will pass before the current sanctions expire in July. Last year Republican Senators John McCain and Mitch McConnell supported renewed sanctions as did Democrat Senator Diane Feinstein and several other influential members of her party.
His statement accused the regime of continued abuses of human rights beyond the point of criminality and called for an international probe over those crimes.
“Many of us in this Congress, as well as credible human rights organisations, have been saying this for years, but now even the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights in Burma has said that it is highly likely the regime has committed crimes,” Crowley said. “This is a regime that has destroyed or forced the abandonment of 3,500 villages, raped countless ethnic minority women and recruited thousands of child soldiers. There is no shortage of evidence of these crimes – which continue to this day.”
“It is my hope the [US] Administration will support the United Nations’ findings, both by acknowledging the Burmese regime is committing crimes against humanity and by seeking a strong international investigation,” he said.
Swiss banking giant Credit Suisse in December agreed to pay an unprecedented US$536 million fine after sanctions enforcers at the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control concluded Credit Suisse had violated American financial sanctions against Iran, Burma, Libya, Sudan, Cuba and the former Liberian regime of Charles Taylor. On announcing the settlement, US Attorney General Eric Holder said the bank had illegally enabled countries under sanctions to circumvent the bans by creating “a business model to allow these rogue players access to US dollars”.
Although the US government investigation found that most of the violations related to transactions with Iran, Credit Suisse under terms the settlement admitted that it had illegally sent money to Burma on 30 occasions. Credit Suisse also acknowledged that over a 20-year period it had illegally sent a total of more than US$1.6 billion in funds to the sanctions-bound countries.
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Yesterday’s proposed Burma sanctions extension comes as Burma’s long-suffering opposition forces are at a crossroads. Suu Kyi’s NLD have opted to boycott the national elections expected to take place this year while other smaller parties, including a faction of NLD defectors, have agreed to take part in the polls.
The NLD boycott was brought on by Burma’s new electoral and political party rules, which effectively barred Suu Kyi and anyone else serving a criminal sentence from running for office. Those rules, combined with Burma’s much criticised 2008 constitution, ensure that Burma’s military will be guaranteed a central role in ruling the country when Burma supposedly returns to civilian rule following the poll results.
