EU goes ahead with Myanmar sanctions

EU goes ahead with Myanmar sanctions

LUXEMBOURG: The European Union (EU) on Monday ramped up sanctions on Myanmar, after the military-ruled state failed to meet EU demands for progress on democracy and human rights, an EU source said.

EU foreign ministers agreed the move, including widening a visa blacklist on Yangon leaders and clamping down on investment, after Myanmar ignored key demands including the release of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

But the EU source said a third threatened measure, under which EU member states would have voted against loans to Myanmar from international institutions, was not included in the beefed-up measures.

The EU move was decided after the Yangon regime made no progress on its demands ahead of an Asia-Europe (ASEM) summit in Vietnam on Friday and Saturday.

The move cast a cloud over the Hanoi meeting, notably after Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi rounded on the EU, arguing that a tougher package of sanctions announced by the 25- nation bloc would do little for reform.

The EU stuck to its guns, insisting the dictatorship in Yangon had failed to deliver at all on promises of democratic reform.

"We have established the fact that there has been very little progress and in most essential areas of human rights, there has been no improvement at all," Dutch Foreign Minister Bernard Bot, who will chair the Luxembourg talks, said late last week. -- AFP