Pressure on Burma
Source : Editorial, Boston Globe
BE IT IN THE Balkans, in Rwanda, or in Iraq, criminals in power have committed their crimes against humanity without being deterred by disapproval from the outside world.
But in the case of the brutal military junta that rules Burma, there are signs that outsiders are determined to protect human rights and restore the legitimate government of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy, which won 80 percent of the seats in Parliament in a 1990 election that the junta has scorned.
This month, at a long-postponed ministerial meeting of the European Union and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the ASEAN countries yielded for the first time to the EU's interference in the internal affairs of a member state. Ever since the Burmese junta gained acceptance from ASEAN in July 1997, that regional bloc has been snubbed by European countries demanding that the Burmese junta respect human rights and engage in political dialogue with Suu Kyi.
In a symbolic concession at last week's meeting in Laos, the junta agreed to receive an EU delegation in January and to release Suu Kyi from house arrest ''at the appropriate time.'' The Europeans must take care not to be fobbed off with a ceremonial visit to Burma. They should insist that the junta cease the practice of torture that was documented in a desolating report released last week by Amnesty International, free all the political prisoners subject to those sadistic tortures, and begin a dialogue with Suu Kyi and her party that may lead to restoration of Burma's elected government.
Fortunately, the EU's initiative comes after the International Labor Organization, the oldest UN agency, called on its members to review relations with Burma and consider sanctions as a means to end the junta's widespread use of forced labor. There are teeth in the ILO's chastisement of the junta.
Also, in an exemplary display of bipartisan solidarity in the cause of human rights and democracy, members of the US Senate and the House of Representatives signed letters to President Clinton asking him to use his power ''to ban all textile and apparel imports, at least, if not all imports from Burma.'' The signatures of liberals Tom Harkin of Iowa and Patrick Leahy of Vermont appeared on the Senate letter alongside those of Jesse Helms of North Carolina and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.
If Clinton wants to leave George W. Bush a powerful precedent for a bipartisan foreign policy, he will support Suu Kyi and the people of Burma by banning textile and apparel imports that enrich the members of Burma's military dictatorship.