Burma sanctions approved in House

The House passed legislation Monday to extend by one year a set of tough sanctions against the brutal ruling military junta of Burma, according to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs press.

The legislation, by Chairman Tom Lantos (D-Calif.), is a one-year extension of the import sanctions portion of the law that he co-authored in 2003. It continues to prohibit the importation into the U.S. any item produced in Burma. The President may waive these sanctions once a series of human rights, democracy and counter-narcotics requirements have been met.

The military junta of Burma continues to terrorize the Burmese people, to suppress free expression and to arbitrarily detain political prisoners.

In a speech on the House floor, Lantos noted that U.S. sanctions have spurred other countries to place pressure on the Burmese regime for reforms, including the leading member-nations of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), but that “too many other nations—India and China in particular—continue to prop up the government through shockingly direct deals, including arms trading, with this cruel junta.”

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