The call for stronger European sanctions on the military junta in Burma follows the series of arrests by
authorities, since 21 August 2007, of over 100 peaceful protestors demonstrating against the increase in the
prices of fuel. The junta responded swiftly and harshly to the protests, detaining and reportedly torturing
several high profile demonstrators. FIDH has previously called upon the Burmese authorities to immediately
release the detainees.
FIDH recalls that the European Union has, over recent years, adopted several Common Positions renewing
sanctions against Burma. The current measures include an embargo on arms and defence related material
as well as a prohibition on European investment in a number of small industries. As FIDH has previously
noted, however, the current sanctions have no real positive impact on human rights and governance in the
country, due to the resistance of certain members of the European Union to extending the sanctions to the
key industries, particularly oil, timber and gas. The revenues from these industries help financially sustain the
junta and, as a result, the EU sanctions fail to produce any true impact.
Notwithstanding the flaws in the current sanctions, FIDH welcomes the efforts of the European Union on the
issue of the human rights situation in Burma at the United Nations and, in particular, its collective support for
the United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Burma and the United Nations
Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Burma.
As the recent repression of peaceful demonstrators shows, however, the junta maintains its ability to forcibly
control the Burmese population and to deny them their most basic human rights. It is high time for
strengthened sanctions to be adopted that will effect real changes on the ground and signal the support of
the international community to the peaceful protesters which are targeted.
FIDH urges the Foreign Ministers of the member states of the European Union to impose, as a matter of
urgency, a new programme of sanctions that prohibit all European investment in the junta’s most profitiable
sectors, namely oil, timber and gas.