U.S. Urges Sustained Global Pressure on Burma's Military Junta
The United States has engaged in a determined pursuit of human rights and
democracy goals in Burma over the past year, working with other like-minded
countries to maintain maximum international pressure on the country's authoritarian
military regime, according to the State Department.
In an annual report to Congress on actions taken by the U.S. government to
encourage respect for human rights, the State Department said the United States
continued to push Burma's ruling junta to establish a constitutional democracy,
respect human rights, release all political prisoners, end abuses by the military
and combat trafficking in persons.
The report, Supporting Human Rights and Democracy: The U.S. Record 2005-2006,
was released April 5.
The report serves as a complement to the State Department's annual Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices, which catalog abuses that took place during
the course of the year.
MULTILATERAL INITIATIVES SUPPORT HUMAN RIGHTS
"The United States worked aggressively and multilaterally to press for
change in Burma," despite a deteriorating political and economic situation
in the country, the report says.
These efforts included support for the work of the U.N. special envoy for
the secretary-general and the U.N. special rapporteur on human rights, the
report said, noting that the Burmese government has blocked both officials
from entering the country for more than two years.
In support of Burmese workers' rights, the United States also encouraged the
efforts of the Rangoon liaison office of the International Labour Organization
(ILO) to seek Burmese government compliance with international labor obligations,
according to the report.
"At the ILO Governing Board meeting in November 2005, the United States
emphasized the need for the [Burmese] government to reengage the ILO in a
meaningful dialogue, and to ensure the liaison officer's ability to safely
carry out his duties countrywide," the report said.
The United States has co-sponsored annual resolutions at the U.N. General
Assembly and the U.N. Commission on Human Rights condemning continued systematic
violations of human rights in Burma, according to the report.
"With the strong support of the United States, the U.N. Security Council
agreed to discuss Burma in informal consultations in December 2005,"
the report says. "On December 16, the U.N. Under Secretary General for
Political Affairs briefed the Council on the continued deterioration of freedoms
in Burma and the regime's neglect of the country's needs."
The United States also consistently raised concerns about Burma in bilateral
contacts with other countries in the Asia-Pacific region, the report says,
and has urged those nations to press the Burmese regime to release political
prisoners and open up the political process.
SANCTIONS SIGNAL DISAPPROVAL OF JUNTA
The United States joined other countries, including members of the European
Union, in imposing a variety of sanctions on Burma's government, according
to the report.
"These sanctions signaled international disapproval while exerting pressure
on the junta to end its human rights abuses and allow for genuine democracy
in Burma," it said.
On June 21, 2005, the report said, the U.S. Congress renewed the Burmese Freedom
and Democracy Act for a third year. The legislation imposes sanctions in a
number of areas, including restrictions on trade, bilateral aid and visa issuance.
U.S. SUPPORTS DEMOCRACY ACTIVISTS
"The United States was a vocal advocate for the rights of democracy activists
in Burma, including Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi," the report says.
Aung San Suu Kyi and U Tin Oo, leaders of the opposition National League for
Democracy (NLD), continue to be held incommunicado under house arrest, according
to the report, and all of the political party's offices throughout the country
remain closed, except for the Rangoon headquarters.
"Following the regime's November 2005 announcement that it had prolonged
Aung San Suu Kyi's detention for another six months, the United States publicly
identified the extension as 'another step in the wrong direction,' and again
called on the government to release Aung San Suu Kyi and all political prisoners
and initiate a meaningful dialogue with the democratic opposition and ethnic
minority political groups," the report says.
The United States has engaged in "vigorous public diplomacy and democracy
programs" in Burma, the report notes, including journalist training,
scholarship programs, civic education activities, and educational and cultural
exchanges.
U.S.-funded groups have been working along Burma's borders to collect information
about a variety of human rights abuses, according to the report, documenting
incidents of rape, forced labor, repression of ethnic and religious minorities
and plundering by the Burmese army.
Partly as a result of such information, the U.S. government has re-designated
Burma as a "Country of Particular Concern" under the International
Religious Freedom Act for the seventh consecutive year, and has ranked it
among the worst violators in its annual report on trafficking in persons,
the report says.