The US State Department has announced the extension of some targeted sanctions against the Burmese government, while lifting visa restrictions on Burmese officials.
State Department officials said that continuing human rights concerns and the detention of political prisoners are factors in the extension of the sanctions.
“Even as we recognize the government’s tremendous progress, we of course remain concerned that the nascent reforms remain vulnerable to elements within Burma that oppose a democratic transition. We’re also concerned about other challenges.
“For example, communal violence in Rakhine state; sectarian conflict elsewhere in the country; the need for greater efforts to achieve national reconciliation, something that’s alluded Burma since independence; the unconditional release of all political prisoners – not just the release, but that it be unconditional, and also severing all military ties with North Korea,” the official said.
“The visa ban of 1996, however, was imposed under conditions that have dramatically changed, especially over the last two years. Since 2011, the civilian-led government of Burma has demonstrated substantial progress on areas of concern that were emphasized in the 1996 proclamation. So in other words, they’ve answered the areas that we referred to in imposing that visa ban in 1996 – for example, most significantly in part, the legislative bi-elections a year ago, which the NLD contested and subsequently secured seats in Burma’s new parliament.
“So terminating that visa ban from 1996 allows us to facilitate greater engagement with the Burmese by more narrowly defining who is prohibited from travelling to the United States. So it’s a very important message to the Burmese.”
