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| Southeast Asia |
| Burma: EU approves tougher sanctions |
| 2007-10-16 |
| (AKI) - European Union foreign ministers agreed on Monday to adopt a package of measures against Burma's military junta, which include an embargo on the export of wood and metals and gemstones. The sanctions also target the key teck and jade exports sectors but do not cover the energy sector. "There is no doubt that these decisions affect several quite major areas, such as Burma's international trade and the significant assets belonging to the families and chiefs of the Burmese junta," Italy's foreign minister Massimo D'Alema told reporters after the foreign ministers summit in Luxembourg. "The EU strongly condemns the brutal crackdown on demonstrations in Burma/Myanmar," read a summit statement. The 27-member bloc regretted that its calls to the Burmese authorities to exercise restraint towards pro-democracy protestors have gone unheeded and the arrests have continued over the recent days, the statement said "The bloc demands that the authorities immediately cease all violent repression and intimidation and that they release all those arrested since mid-August, as well as Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and all the other political prisoners," the statement continued. Aung is the Burmese opposition leader (photo). The EU will continue its "substantial humanitarian aid programmes aimed at the most vulnerable populations of burma/Myanmar and Burmese refugees in neighbouring countries" and is ready to increase this assistance, the statement added. The EU already has sanctions in place against the Burmese leadership and their families, with 375 people on a visa-ban and asset-freeze list. |
| Posted by:Fred |