U.K. Adds Pressure on EU to Ease Myanmar Sanctions

By JAMES HOOKWAY And SHIBANI MAHTANI, Updated April 15, 2012, 2:51 p.m. ET ... 

British Prime Minister David Cameron's call to suspend sanctions against Myanmar, which was quickly backed by opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, will likely put further pressure on the European Union to review its restrictions on trade ties with the former military state.
While other global figures have visited Myanmar in recent months, including U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Mr. Cameron is the first Western leader to visit Myanmar since a nominally civilian government took power 12 months ago and began enacting a series of reforms and releasing political prisoners. After meeting with President Thein Sein, a retired general, in the capital Naypyitaw and Ms. Suu Kyi in Yangon, Mr. Cameron told a news conference Friday that "there are real prospects for change in Burma, and I think it is right for the rest of the world to respond to those changes."

Mr. Cameron said he plans to recommend to the EU later this month that it suspend its sanctions against Myanmar, also known as Burma, when it meets to decide whether to maintain its long-standing trade curbs on the country. But he wouldn't go as far as recommending that European nations lift sanctions entirely, nor would he endorse lifting a ban on arms sales to Myanmar's military.

"Instead of lifting them entirely, we should suspend them so they are capable of being put back in place and it should cover everything, except the arms embargo," the British leader said, standing alongside Ms. Suu Kyi. "It will show to the regime that we respect and welcome the progress that has been made on political prisoners, on political freedom, but it is a suspension, not lifting, so if this progress is not irreversible then sanctions could be reimposed."

Ms. Suu Kyi, a former Nobel Peace Prize winner who spent years under house arrest and who exerts considerable moral influence in the West, endorsed Mr. Cameron's position. She said suspending sanctions is the right way to respond to the democratic reforms under way in Myanmar, and said she believed that Mr. Thein Sein is genuine about reform. Moreover, suspending rather than lifting sanctions, she said, "makes it clear to opponents of reform that if they oppose reform, sanctions could come back."

Mr. Cameron's stance makes it increasingly likely that the EU will suspend at least some of its sanctions on Myanmar when its review begins on April 23. Britain has long been more cautious than many other European nations on easing sanctions, and Mr. Cameron's new tack means there are few other opponents to easing trade curbs.

The U.S. has already relaxed some of its sanctions on Myanmar after a series of by-elections on April 1 that saw Ms. Suu Kyi and other members of her National League for Democracy elected to Parliament. The Obama administration has eased curbs on financial transactions and some investments, as well as a ban on U.S. visas for government officials, although dropping other trade curbs will likely be a lengthy process requiring the amendment of several laws.

Political analysts and diplomats say that quiet, soft-spoken Mr. Thein Sein needs the U.S. and EU to drop their long-standing sanctions on the country in order to maintain its shift toward democracy. Some foreign officials who have met with Mr. Thein Sein and his government warn that there remain hard-liners in the military who might slow the rate of change in Myanmar unless the new government can show it can deliver tangible economic rewards from the reform process.

Mr. Cameron said his proposal was designed to strengthen Mr. Thein Sein's hand, while also warning skeptics in the armed forces again that sanctions could be quickly reinstated if they obstruct reform.

But ensuring that Myanmar's reform process continues in such as way as to persuade the EU—and the U.S.—to permanently lift their sanctions on the country will likely be difficult. Analysts say there are many political prisoners still in detention, and finding a solution to Myanmar's ethnic conflicts will be particularly testing. The country has been plagued by ethnic conflicts in its northern and eastern states since independence in 1948, and there is considerable bad blood between the various insurgent groups and the armed forces.

In a report issued late this January, New York-based Human Rights Watch said Myanmar's military continues to violate international humanitarian law though extrajudicial killings, torture and employing forced labor in the Kachin, Shan and Karen States.

The report alleged that army units in the Karen State specifically force rebel captives to work in live combat zones, using them as human shields to clear land mines or to deter attacks.

The political leader of the one of the largest ethnic insurgent groups, the Karen National Union, says the rest of the world should wait for more political reforms and the implementation of a lasting national cease-fire before lifting trade curbs.

"The international community should not rush too fast," the KNU's general secretary, Zipporah Sein, said in a telephone interview with The Wall Street Journal on Thursday, before Mr. Cameron's visit. "They should wait a little bit."

Last week, the possibility of an end to a long-running conflict between the Karen group and the national government came into view as insurgent leaders met separately with Mr. Thein Sein and Ms. Suu Kyi, the highest level talks since a tentative cease-fire agreement was made in January this year.

Ms. Zipporah Sein said the agreement was just "the first step" and that the government still needs to go further to show their commitment to a lasting peace process that could help drive economic growth.

"The president believes there should be peace and the country should be developed," she said. "Unless there is a cease-fire, they know the country won't get developed—but they don't know what the ethnic people struggle for."
 
Write to James Hookway at james.hookway@wsj.com

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