*EPF406 06/19/2003
Senator Brownback Says Efforts to Engage Burma Have Failed
(East Asia/Pacific subcommittee chairman urges sanctions) (300)

By Stephen La Rocque
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- Senator Sam Brownback (Republican of Kansas) urged the Bush administration to impose sanctions on Burma at a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs June 18.

Brownback, the chairman of that panel, presided over a meeting in which Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Lorne Craner criticized the Rangoon regime and its treatment of Nobel Peace Prize recipient Aung San Suu Kyi.

According to a news release from Senator Brownback's office, the Kansas Republican said the United States should pursue a policy seeking multilateral isolation of the military junta ruling that country.

"Engagement with the regime, whether or not it was bearing fruit, has failed," he said.

"Systems of government matter," Brownback said, noting that Burma's military rulers does not even try to operate with any suggestion that it is a democratically oriented state.

The United States "must impose sanctions -- namely the import ban -- sacrificing our own economic self-interest in this particular instance," he said.

Brownback said a series of other sanctions on the junta, including visa bans, freezing and seizing assets of the regime's supporters, a ban on remittances to that country, and a travel ban on travel to Burma by U.S. citizens, were all measures "to put the squeeze on the generals" ruling that Southeast Asian nation.

"I think these measures can be very, very successful," he added.

Brownback also drew attention to cases of human trafficking in Burma.

Along with the State Department official, witnesses testifying at the subcommittee hearing included U Aung Din, Policy Director for the Free Burma Coalition; Brian Joseph, Program Officer, Asia for the National Endowment for Democracy; and Ms. Veronika Martin, Advocate for Refugees International.

(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

Return to Public File Main Page

Return to Public Table of Contents