Burma : EU sanctions are "half-hearted and disappointing"

The tightening of the sanctions against Burma announced by the European Union (EU) have been criticised by the Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) as half-hearted and disappointing. "It is just eyewash and merely doing things for the sake of doing things to tighten sanctions, which it is clear from the outset will have no effect”, said the GfbV Asia correspondent of the GfbV, Ulrich Delius, in Göttingen on Thursday. Instead of striking the military regime at its economic core and forbidding the activity of European firms in the booming oil and natural gas industry in Burma and stopping the import of tropical timber and diamonds, the EU is merely renewing the existing ineffectual sanctions.

The GfbV regrets that a tightening of the sanctions constantly fails as a result of the opposition of France and Germany . France above all refuses to agree to a withdrawal of European firms from the Burmese mineral industry since the French oil concern TOTAL is considered the most important foreign investor in Burma . Since 1992 TOTAL has been mining mineral oil in the south-east Asian country. In Germany also the Committee of the German Economy for Asia and the Pacific (Asien-Pazifik-Ausschuss der Deutschen Wirtschaft) registered strong objections to new sanctions.

The EU agreed on Wednesday in Brussels at the foreign minister level to extend the list of persons belonging to the junta who should not be allowed to enter the EU and to extend the list of firms belonging to the Burmese government in which European firms should not be allowed to invest. This order is however is however quite pointless since such investments are in any case not permissible according to Burmese law, said Delius.

"EU sanctions against Burma are in principle important since they are an clear sign for Thailand, China and India, the most important partners of Burma, to stop supporting the military government”, said Delius. These three states make up 66 percent of Burma ’s international trade. It is of paramount importance that the EU should exercise influence particularly on Thailand since it is Burma ’s most important trade partner. Thailand is not only a recipient of energy from the neighbouring country, but plays also a leading part in the illegal trade with Burmese tropical timber. China and India are also systematically increasing their economic relationships with Burma .