Australia 'won't boost' Burma sanctions

[kiwi]

Wednesday September 26, 07:33 PM
Australia 'won't boost' Burma sanctions
Australia will use its regional relationship to try to bring about change in Burma but won't follow the US in tightening the economic noose against its brutal military rulers.

Washington announced tighter economic sanctions and extended visa bans against Burma's military regime overnight - with Europe considering similar moves - amid signs that the junta may be losing patience after weeks of peaceful demonstrations.
 
 
Police and soldiers in Rangoon reportedly fired warning shots on Wednesday over crowds gathered to watch 1,000 Buddhist monks marching in Burma's biggest city.

It follows the regime's decision on Tuesday to impose a dusk-to-dawn curfew and install extra security forces on the streets of Rangoon to try to end the most serious anti-junta demonstrations in almost 20 years.

This week's protests in Rangoon are the biggest public show of dissent since student-led rallies in 1988 were brutally repressed with hundreds, if not thousands, of lives lost.

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, in New York for a meeting of the United Nations, believes regional engagement is the best way to bring reform to Burma after years of isolation.

Economic sanctions, he says, would prove virtually useless and would only hurt ordinary citizens.

"I think economic sanctions as such would have absolutely no impact, except perhaps on the living standards of a number of ordinary Burmese, although we have virtually no, or minuscule, trade with Burma," Mr Downer told reporters in New York.

"From Australia's point of view, I think what we should be doing is not just continuing our diplomacy with the ASEAN countries but maintaining our dialogue with the Chinese over the situation in Burma.

"My view is that China is the country that at least has the potential to have the most leverage over the regime there, and whether, of course, they will be able to exercise great influence is a bit of an unknown."

China is publicly saying that it won't interfere in Burma's affairs but calls are growing for it to use its influence to prevent any confrontation between the junta and pro-democracy forces.

Beijing has been instrumental in blocking the UN from taking action against Burma for its human rights abuses.

Australian National University visiting fellow Trevor Wilson, a former Australian ambassador in Rangoon, says the current culmination of events could be a turning point for Burma.

"(But) I'm not optimistic that from inside the country or from outside clear steps are being taken that will bring about that change," he told AAP.

Aside from military and defence bans, he believes sanctions by individual nations have little impact on Burma.

"Unless you've got fully authorised UN Security Council sanctions, sanctions are not a very effective way (of bringing about change), if they're going to be circumvented by other Asian countries," Mr Wilson said.

Teddy Buri, a Burmese politician living in exile in Melbourne, wants Australia to take a leading role in rallying for change in his homeland.

Mr Buri pointed to Australia's position as a dialogue partner with ASEAN countries as well as its growing links with India and China.

"Australia can play a leading role, it needs to play a leading role," he said.

"It's not time for empty rhetoric and empty resolutions.

"It's time for actions to help the Burmese people, to save them from massacres."

Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Robert McClelland said the Burmese people were just after a say in how they were governed and a decent lifestyle.

"They are sick of being governed by a military junta that has acted in its own interests," he told Sky News.

Mr McClelland noted international legal opinion that members of Burma's military leadership could be tried before the International Criminal Court for political persecution.

"We certainly think, as a result of their political oppression, that is something to be explored," he said.