Democratic Burmese Youths

House votes to renew Myanmar sanctions

        WASHINGTON (AP) - Congress moved Monday to extend import sanctions on
Myanmar for another year, citing the Asian country's suppression of political
dissent and human rights.
   The House voted by voice to renew the ban on imports, imposed under a 2003
law, for another year. The Senate Finance Committee was scheduled to approve an
identical resolution later in the day.
   "The controlling junta continues to have total disregard for its own people
and their basic rights," Rep. Sander Levin, D-Mich., said of the military
government that has held power in Myanmar, also known as Burma, since 1988.
   He said the military leaders continue to arrest and torture political
activists and refuse to release Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, the
pro-democracy leader who has been detained by the government for 12 of the past
18 years.
   The United States also restricts exports and financial transactions with
Myanmar, and imposes an arms embargo with what House Foreign Relations Committee
Chairman Tom Lantos, D-Calif., called "one of the most repressive regimes on the
planet."
   Lantos acknowledged that unilateral sanctions were of limited effect when
other countries -- he mentioned China and India -- had active commercial
relations with Myanmar. But he said European nations are imposing sanctions and
he hoped the U.S. stance would "influence those in the international community
who are currently asleep at the wheel of justice and human rights."
  
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