10 June 2003
Congress Moves Quickly on Legislation to Sanction Burma Regime
(Senate set to take up McConnell bill) (830)
By Stephen La Rocque
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington -- In both the House of Representatives and the Senate,
lawmakers were working June 10 to move legislation that would impose
sanctions on the Rangoon regime.
The bills would ban imports from Burma, freeze assets of the Burmese
regime in the United States, including those of individuals who hold
senior positions in either the government or its political action arm,
require the United States to oppose any loans from international
institutions for Burma, deny visas to members of the Rangoon regime as
well as supporters, and aid Burma's democracy activists.
In the Senate, Senator Mitch McConnell (Republican of Kentucky) was
seeking to bring his bill, S. 1215, directly to the floor of the
Senate for action June 10.
McConnell, the Republican Deputy Majority Leader, submitted S. 1215,
the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act of 2003, to the Senate June 9.
The bill is essentially the same as an earlier bill he authored, S.
1182, which was introduced June 4 and then referred to the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee for action.
S. 1215, after being read for the first time, was placed directly on
the Senate legislative calendar without being referred to a committee
for action.
His earlier proposed legislation, S. 1182, had 21 co-sponsors,
including both the chairman and the ranking minority member of the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee -- Senator Richard Lugar
(Republican of Indiana) and Senator Joseph Biden (Democrat of
Delaware), as well as the Senate Majority Leader William Frist
(Republican of Tennessee) and the Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle
(Democrat of South Dakota).
S. 1215 is nearly identical to the House bill, H.R. 2330, which calls
for similar sanctions on the Burmese government and has wide
bipartisan support.
The only differences between the two bills are in sections 3 and 7.
Section 3 of the Senate version has additional texts on the authority
to waive sanctions on the Burmese regime: "International Obligations
-- The President may waive an provision of this Act found to be in
violation of any international obligations of the United States
pursuant to any final ruling to Burma under the dispute settlement
procedures of the World Trade Organization."
Section 7 of the Senate version in the proposed legislation,
Condemnation of the regime and dissemination of information, S. 1215
has a part (b) which states: "United States Embassy -- The United
States embassy in Rangoon shall take all steps necessary to provide
access of information and United States policy decisions to media
organs not under the control of the ruling military regime."
On the House side, the House International Relations Subcommittee on
Asia and the Pacific marked up H.R. 2330, without any change, in a
unanimous voice vote, moving that bill one step closer to becoming
law.
The subcommittee also was holding a hearing June 10 on the situation
in Burma, and in other Southeast Asian nations.
"On May 30th, thugs with ties to the military junta in Burma ambushed
the motorcade of democracy leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi,
killing an undetermined number of her supporters, and halting two
years of negotiations between the government and Burma's fledgling
democracy movement," according to a background note on the
subcommittee's website.
In the subcommittee's announcement of the June 10 hearing,
Representative James Leach (Republican of Iowa), the panel's chairman,
said it would raise the question, "What is the truth behind the May
30th ambush of Burmese Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi by
government-affiliated thugs?", and look at whether the renewed
crackdown on democracy advocates merited "an expansion of U.S.
sanctions" against the military regime.
Meanwhile, criticism of the May 30 attack on the convoy carrying Aung
San Suu Kyi continued from the floor of the House.
Representative Donald Payne (Democrat of New Jersey) said June 9 that
he "deplored in the strongest possible terms" the nationwide crackdown
in Burma.
"The attack by armed goons supported by Burma's military regime on
1991 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Aung San Suu Kyi is an insult and an
offense to all freedom loving peoples around the world," said Payne, a
member of the House International Relations Committee.
"Even worse, it is reported that several of her supporters have been
brutally killed," said Payne, a strong human rights advocate.
"When I traveled to Burma to meet with Aung San Suu Kyi, I was
immediately impressed by her staunch commitment to freedom and her
refusal to yield to unremitting government pressure," said the
eight-term New Jersey Democrat, "I was proud to hear that Archbishop
Desmond Tutu, a man I know and admire, has called for the
international community to immediately impose sanctions on Burma's
regime."
Payne urged the United States to cooperate promptly in the imposition
of sanctions on Rangoon, adding that "failure to act decisively would
be to miss an opportunity to reaffirm our support for liberty and
justice in Burma."
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International
Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site:
http://usinfo.state.gov)
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