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Bush Extends Emergency Basis for Sanctions Against Burma

19 May 2006

Measures to deal with "unusual threat" must continue, president declares

By Susan Krause
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- President Bush has signed a one-year extension of a declaration of national emergency that underlies the imposition of economic sanctions against Burma, according to a notice released by the White House May 18.

The U.S. Congress first authorized the president to impose sanctions against Burma in September 1996, during the administration of former President Bill Clinton, when Senator Dianne Feinstein (Democrat of California) and former Senator William Cohen (Republican of Maine) successfully introduced an amendment to an appropriations bill for the 1997 fiscal year.

President Clinton issued Executive Order 13047 on May 20, 1997, certifying under the authority of the 1997 Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs Act (Public Law 104-208) and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701-1706) that the government of Burma had engaged in repression of and violence against the country's democratic opposition.

The executive order established a state of national emergency and prohibited "U.S. persons" from making new investments in Burma or facilitating new investment in Burma by foreign persons. 

Those restrictions were expanded under the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act of 2003, which was passed by Congress following a May 30, 2003, attack against Nobel Laureate and Burmese democratic opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her supporters.  Evidence showed that Burma's ruling junta, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), supported the attack.  (See related article.)

President Bush signed the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act on July 28, 2003, and simultaneously issued Executive Order 13310, which took effect the following day.  The order imposed a ban on imports from Burma, blocked assets of certain entities and individuals and restricted financial and technical assistance to Burma.  (See related article.) 

With little evidence of improvement in Burma, the president has continued to approve one-year extensions of the national emergency.  The administration has also worked to increase support for stronger action against Burma among the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and at the United Nations.  (See related article.)

"Because the actions and policies of the Government of Burma continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States, the national emergency declared on May 20, 1997, and the measures adopted on that date to deal with that emergency must continue beyond May 20, 2006," Bush says in the May 18 notice, which will be published in the Federal Register and transmitted to Congress.

For additional information on U.S. policy toward Burma, see U.S. Support for Democracy in Burma. 

The full text of the notice can be found at the White House Web site.

A fact sheet on U.S. sanctions against Burma is available on the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control Web site.

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