Washington, July 16: US lawmakers have voted overwhelmingly to sanction Myanmar's ruling military junta -- imposing trade restrictions, freezing the regime's financial assets in us banks, and installing a visa ban on regime members seeking to enter the United States. The Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act of 2003, which passed in the House yesterday by a vote of 418 to 2, also authorizes US President George W. Bush to use resources to assist Myanmar's democracy activists.
The US Senate last month passed similar legislation. Both the House and Senate bills, which must be reconciled before being submitted for Bush's signature, were introduced in protest over the junta's recent crackdown on the pro-democracy opposition and its detention on May 30 of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
"In attacking Aung San Suu Kyi and other supporters of democracy, the Rangoon regime has sunk to new lows and secured its place among the world's rogues gallery of chronic human rights abusers, including North Korea and Iran," said California representative Tom Lantos, top Democrat on the House International Affairs Committee, after the vote. "With this brutal campaign against freedom, the national reconciliation process sponsored by the United Nations is dead," Lantos said. Bureau Report