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Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction
So tell me this...When have sanctions ever helped make difference?
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http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/06/...nion/edsuu.php
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Aung San Suu Kyi and the Burmese democrats in exile have been asking us for years to take three practical steps: economic sanctions, an intervention by the UN Security Council, and greater vigilance from Southeast Asian countries. There is no better way of supporting Aung San Suu Kyi's struggle than by doing everything we can to achieve these three goals. For it should be remembered that Aung San Suu Kyi has been the only legitimate representative of the Burmese people since 1990. Economic sanctions are called for by the Burmese themselves, who are in a position to assess the country's socioeconomic situation. Sanctions would not affect the population, mostly made up of peasants living in conditions of extreme poverty. If sanctions were targeted at major export sectors, such as gas, oil, timber and precious stones, their effect would financially weaken the junta and their allies in Myanmar, who are the only ones to make vast profits from those exports. Myanmar allocates more than 40 percent of its budget to the military - that is, to repression of its own people, since Myanmar is not at war with any of its neighbors - although it ranks last but one out of 191 countries in terms of health expenditure. Investments in Myanmar are therefore helping to fund the repression. Desmond Tutu draws a parallel with the South African people under apartheid: The Burmese people need the same kind of support that gave South Africans access to democracy. The U.S. administration has already imposed sanctions; it is now urgent that the European Union and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations decide together to ban all investments in Myanmar.
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It is the Burmese THEMSELVES calling for the sanctions. And note that it is Desmond Tutu speaking - South Africa was forced to end apartheid due to sanctions. Do I think the SPDC is going to be brought down by sanctions? Not on their own. But as Aung San Suu Kyi points out, it is one tool of many that the international community should be wielding. Her National League for Democracy is 100% behind the international community uniting in bringing sanctions against Burma as a means of weakening the SPDC.