ASEAN calls for lifting sanctions on Burma

Foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations appealed yesterday for the lifting of international sanctions against Burma, which held its first elections in two decades in November.

The regional block has a long history of not interfering with the internal affairs of Burma, whose military rulers call it Myanmar.

“It’s exactly the wrong thing to be doing at this time,” says The Executive Director of Burma Campaign UK, Anna Roberts. “The ASEAN call is based on an absolutely flawed assessment of what is going on inside of Burma.”

Roberts said the elections were “sham elections”, designed to keep the country’s military rulers in place.

“The key thing about the election, apart from the fact that it wasn’t free and fair, is that it doesn’t matter,” she told Vatican Radio. “What it brings in is a constitution that has been written by the dictatorship wit the very purpose to maintain their rule…maybe we see the military take off their uniforms and put on civilian clothes, but it will be dictatorship nonetheless. This election and new constitution brings Burma’s people no closer to the freedom and democracy they are struggling for.”

Listen to the full interview by Charles Collins with Anna Roberts: