European Union to drop Burma sanctions

BRUSSELS - The European Union will drop most sanctions against Burma to reward the country’s progress toward democracy, two EU diplomats said Friday.

The decision will be formally taken by the bloc’s 27 foreign ministers when they meet Monday in Luxembourg, in a bid to support the southeast Asian nation’s transition, the diplomats said.

The sanctions were suspended in April 2012 for one year after the country’s military rulers handed over power to a civilian government that launched democratic changes. The measures had targeted more than 800 companies and nearly 500 people and also included the suspension of some development aid.

“The suspension provided a probation period, and we have now seen that we can be relatively reassured on the authorities’ commitment to pursue the path toward democracy,” one of the diplomats said.

However, an embargo on arms and equipment that canbe used for internal repression will remain in place, the diplomats said. They spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of the formal decision by the ministers next week. Burma, long a dictatorship, has undergone a transition since the military handed over power in 2011.

President Thein Sein’s government has released hundreds of political prisoners, eased restrictions on the press and freedom of assembly, and brokered cease-fires for some of the nation’s ethnic insurgencies. After years of housearrest, opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has been elected to parliament.

But the rapid pace of change has also been accompanied by some chaos, with sectarian tensions resurfacing in the multiethnic country of about 60 million. Burma is often called Myanmar, a name that ruling military authorities adopted in 1989. Opposition leader Suu Kyi and other regime opponents have refused to adopt the name change, as have the U.S. and Britain.

Front Section, Pages 7 on 04/20/2013

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