BURMA-U.S.: Clinton Imposes Visa Ban On SLORC Members

By Jim Lobe Reprint | | Print |

Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Oct 3 1996 (IPS) - In the latest measures leveled against Burma’s military authorities, U.S. President Bill Clinton Thursday announced that members of the junta, their families, and key supporters will be banned from entering the United States.

White House spokesman Mike McCurry said the visa ban was directed against “ongoing repression” by the State Law and Order Restoration Committee (SLORC), the name the junta gave itself after taking over the government in 1988.

Those being banned from U.S. territory are “persons who are judged to be formulating or implementing policies that are impeding the transition to democracy in Burma, or persons who benefit from such policies and their immediate families,” according to the announcement.

The measure was tied to last week’s arrest of as many as 500 activists of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD), which was scheduled to hold a party congress over the weekend. Aung San Suu Kyi, the NLD leader and 1991 Nobel Peace Laureate, was also prevented from speaking to her followers for the first time since she was released from six years of house arrest 15 months ago.

Suu Kyi was originally arrested after her party, the National League for Democracy, (NLD) swept elections in 1990 with more than 80 percent of the vote. The SLORC, however, ignored the results.

Clinton’s action Thursday was requested by the U.S. Congress which last month — before the latest roundups — expressed “deep concern” over the dozens of arrests which had been reported since June.

In language attached to a foreign aid spending bill, lawmakers said they “support the imposition of a ban on new investment in the event that specified acts are taken against Aung San Suu Kyi, the legitimately elected leader of Burma, or there is large-scale violence or repression of the democratic opposition.”

While Clinton’s official announcement did not refer to this provision, his U.N. ambassador, Madeleine Albright, told reporters here that the administration “is also reviewing the situation in Burma in light of the …new law which authorises the president, under certain circumstances, to impose sanctions on new investment in Burma.”

Republican Senator Mitch McConnell, who has led the sanctions fight in Congress, called on Clinton to impose the investment ban immediately. “There is no question the recent events reflect SLORC’s decision to directly challenge America’s commitment to democracy and its champions so obviously under siege,” he declared from the Senate floor.

While levels of U.S. investment in the Southeast Asian nation have been falling in recent years, U.S. companies, notably in the oil and gas sector, still invest about 50 million dollars a year there.

Last month, Burma’s exiled National Government of the Union of Burma sued the biggest U.S. investor by far, Unocal, for “vicarious liability” for abuses committed during the construction of a railroad in Burma that is being built by the regime to supply materials for a natural gas pipeline.

Backed up by independent human rights groups, like Amnesty International, and the U.S. State Department, the exiled government is charging that the SLORC has used unpaid forced labour to build the project, and that UNOCAL bears indirect responsibility.

“California law is very clear that you cannot enter into a contract with someone who is going to commit wrongful acts if you know, or should have known, about these acts,” Cristobal Bonifaz, one of the attorneys representing the exiled government, told IPS. Unocal has denounced the lawsuit as “false, irresponsible, and frivolous.”

The Unocal suit is one prong of a broader campaign to ban U.S. investment from Burma. In the last year, a number of local U.S. jurisdictions, including San Francisco and the state of Massachusetts, have enacted measures banning companies with investment in Burma from bidding on government contracts. New York City and California’s legislature are considering similar measures.

The campaign has also been strong in Western Europe. In recent months, two European breweries, Carlsbert and Heineken announced they are pulling out of Burma, while a large Danish pension fund has sold off its shares of the French oil company Total which also has significant investments in Burma.

In addition to arresting Suu Kyi’s followers and barricading her residence, the SLORC also accused Washington’s charge d’affaires in Rangoon of interfering in Burma’s internal affairs and colluding with the NLD in planning the aborted party congress.

Analysts here say the new crisis has been building steadily since May when the SLORC carried out its last big roundup of NLD activists.

Since then, the SLORC has ignored all calls by western powers and Suu Kyi for dialogue. In July, Suu Kyi called publicly for an international investment ban, while the SLORC began its own propaganda campaign depicting her as subversive and a tool of foreign interests.

The regime has evidently been bolstered by the decision in July by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to admit Burma as an observer. The SLORC has said it hopes to get full ASEAN membership next year.

The ASEAN nations, who have become major investors in Burma, have argued that a “constructive engagement” policy with the regime will be more effective than one of confrontation and pressure.

The military authorities appear to be counting on ASEAN, India, and China to insulate the country’s economy from the effects of western sanctions. Asked about this, the SLORC’s planning minister last month told reporters that his country “can survive on its own… We can divert our markets to other places,” he added, noting that the Burma is surrounded by 2.5 billion consumers.

Albright, who headed a U.S. delegation to Burma a year ago, suggested Burma’s neighbours should review their position.

“We are asking our friends …who advocate constructive engagement with the SLORC to be sure that their engagement is, in fact, constructive. We should not, after all, be rewarding despots, and we should be encouraging them either to change or to leave,” she said.

Washington had previously eliminated all but humanitarian and anti-drug assistance to Burma, placed an embargo on arms sales, and has pledged to vote against all loans to Burma from international institutions.