Prime Minister David Cameron Visits Burma
British
Prime Minister David Cameron made a historic visit to Burma, meeting
Aung San Suu Kyi, President Thein Sein, and ethnic representatives. At
their meeting David Cameron and Aung San Suu Kyi agreed that EU
sanctions (excluding arms embargoes) should be suspended, rather than
lifted as Germany and some other EU members have been proposing. Aung
San Suu Kyi talked about the positive role sanctions are playing to
encourage reform:
“I support the suspension
rather than the lifting of sanctions, because this would be an
acknowledgment of the rule of the President and other reformers. This
suspension would have taken place because of the steps taken by the
President and other reformers, and it would also make it quite clear to
those who are against reform that, should they try to obstruct the way
of the reformers, then sanctions could come back. So this would
strengthen the hand of the reformers – not just the suspension, but the
fact that there is always a possibility of sanctions coming back again
if the reformers are not allowed to proceed smoothly.”
These
sanctions would never have been in place if it were not for the support
of thousands of campaigners like you, who lobbied for years to get the
British government and EU to introduce targeted sanctions. The Financial
Times reported today that: “UK-based human rights groups…have
significantly influenced the UK’s historically strong support for
maintaining sanctions.”
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