[Federal Register: December 19, 2002 (Volume 67, Number 244)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Page 77645]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
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Presidential Documents
___________________________________________________________________
Title 3--
The President
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Presidential Determination No. 03-07 of December 11,
2002
Report to the Congress Regarding Conditions in
Burma and U.S. Policy Toward Burma
Memorandum for the Secretary of State
Pursuant to the requirements set forth under the
heading ``Policy toward Burma'' in section 570(d) of
the Fiscal Year 1997 Foreign Operations Appropriations
Act, as contained in the Omnibus Consolidated
Appropriations Act (Public Law 104-208), a report is
required every 6 months following enactment concerning:
(1)
progress toward democratization in Burma;
(2)
progress on improving the quality of life of the Burmese people, including
progress on market reforms, living standards, labor standards, use of
forced labor in the tourism industry, and environmental quality; and
(3)
progress made in developing a comprehensive, multilateral strategy to bring
democracy to and improve human rights practices and the quality of life in
Burma, including the development of a dialogue between the State Peace and
Development Council and democratic opposition groups in Burma.
I understand the attached report was not forwarded due
to an administrative error.
You are hereby authorized and directed now to transmit
the attached report fulfilling the above-stated
requirements to the appropriate committees of the
Congress and to arrange for its publication in the
Federal Register.
(Presidential Sig.)B
THE WHITE HOUSE,
Washington, December 11, 2002.
Billing code 4710-10-M
[Federal Register: December 19, 2002 (Volume 67, Number 244)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Page 77646-77650]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
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Conditions in Burma and U.S. Policy Toward Burma for
the Period September 28, 2001-March 27, 2002
Introduction and Summary
Over the past 6 months, Burma's military government and
the National League for Democracy (NLD) General
Secretary Aung San Suu Kyi have continued confidence-
building measures that are reportedly aimed at
supporting a transition to democracy and civilian rule.
Both sides have held the substance of these talks in
strictest confidence, but the past 18 months has seen
the release of approximately 250 political prisoners,
and a halt to the vicious attacks on Aung San Suu Kyi
and the NLD by the government-owned press.
Unfortunately, the process has moved very slowly. Of
particular concern is the continuing house arrest of
Aung San Suu Kyi.
The quality of life in Burma during the past 6 months
has deteriorated. Poverty is widespread, and the
economy increasingly shows the effects of a growing
government deficit, rising inflation, shortfalls in
energy supplies and growing foreign exchange shortages.
Severe human rights abuses are commonplace,
particularly in ethnic minority areas, where there are
continuing reports of extrajudicial killings, rape, and
disappearances. Due to continuing severe restrictions
on religious freedom, Burma was again designated a
``country of particular concern'' in 2001 under the
International Religious Freedom Act. Prison conditions
are harsh, despite access to the prisons by the
International Committee of the Red Cross. One retired
university rector was also detained and sentenced to 7
years in prison following his one-man protest calling
for new general elections.
Forced labor remains an issue of serious concern. In
September 2001, an ILO High Level Team visited Burma to
assess the situation and concluded that the SPDC had
made an ``obvious, but uneven'' effort to curb the
practice; nevertheless, forced labor persisted,
particularly in border areas. In March 2002, the
government reached agreement with the ILO on
appointment of an ILO liaison officer in Burma, pending
establishment of a permanent ILO office.
Burma is also one of the world's largest producers of
illicit opium, heroin, and methamphetamines. However,
its overall output of opium has declined by two-thirds
over the past 5 years, in part as a result of bad
weather and in part as a result of eradication efforts.
It has also stepped up law enforcement operations
against some former insurgent groups (particularly the
Kokang Chinese) and considerably improved its counter-
narcotics cooperation with China, Thailand, and other
neighboring states.
United States policy goals in Burma include progress
towards democracy, improved human rights, a more
effective counternarcotics effort, counterterrorist
cooperation, resolving MIA cases from WW II, and
addressing the HIV/AIDS epidemic which threatens
regional stability and prosperity. We hope that the on-
going talks between Aung San Suu Kyi and the military
will lead to meaningful democratic change and national
reconciliation. We consult regularly, at senior levels,
with countries interested in Burma that share our
goals.
In coordination with the European Union and other
states, the United States maintains sanctions on Burma
aimed at encouraging transition to democratic rule and
greater respect for human rights. These include an arms
embargo, an investment ban, and other measures.
Measuring Progress toward Democratization
From September 2001 through March 2002, Burma's
military regime continued talks with the NLD's General
Secretary, Aung San Suu Kyi. Since the talks began 18
months ago, we have seen the release of approximately
250 political prisoners, including all but 20 of the
MPs elected in 1990
[[Page 77647]]
and all of the NLD's Central Executive Committee
members with the exception of Aung San Suu Kyi. The
regime has also halted the virulent attacks on Aung San
Suu Kyi and the NLD which had become a staple of
newspaper coverage in Burma. In addition, the military
government has allowed the NLD to reopen 32 party
offices in Rangoon Division and to resume some normal
party activities. These included public meetings on
Burma's National, Independence and Union Days, all of
which were attended by Ambassadors and Chiefs of
Mission from the United States, the United Kingdom,
Australia, and other countries. The NLD, in turn, has
moderated its public criticism of the regime and
announced that it is now prepared to work with the
regime on political transition.
Over the past 6 months, the regime has gradually
increased access to Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been
under house arrest since the talks began in 2000.
Visitors have included U.N. Special Rapporteur for
Human Rights Paulo Pinheiro, U.N. Special Envoy Razali
Ismail, the ILO's High Level Team, representatives of
the European Union and U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary
of State Matthew Daley, among others. Aung San Suu Kyi
is also now in daily contact with fellow NLD members,
including NLD Chairman U Aung Shwe, and NLD Vice
Chairman U Tin Oo. The abrupt postponement of U.N.
Special Envoy Razali's planned March 19 visit to Burma
is of particular concern, especially in light of
approval for other meetings. The connection, if any,
between this event and the arrest of members of Ne
Win's family is unclear.
The United States welcomed the confidence-building
process between the government and Aung San Suu Kyi and
the release of political prisoners and resumption of
some NLD activity. However, we have also urged the
regime to move beyond confidence building to a genuine
political dialogue with Aung San Suu Kyi that would
chart the course for a return to democracy and civilian
rule. Critical next steps include release of all
remaining political prisoners, the unconditional
release of Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest and
increased political rights and freedom of operation for
the NLD and other political parties.
Counternarcotics
Burma is one of the world's largest producers of
illicit opium, heroin, and methamphetamines. However,
its overall output of opium has declined sharply in
recent years. In 2001, Burma produced an estimated 865
metric tons of opium, barely one-third of the 2,560
metric tons of opium produced in Burma 5 years earlier.
Unfortunately, as opium production has declined,
methamphetamine production has soared, particularly in
outlying regions that are governed by former
insurgents. According to some estimates, as many as 800
million methamphetamine tablets may be produced in
Burma each year.
There is no evidence that the government is involved on
an institutional level in the drug trade. However,
there are reliable reports that individual Burmese
officials in outlying areas are either directly
involved in drug trafficking or provide protection to
those who are. In addition, while the government has
encouraged ethnic insurgents who have signed cease-fire
agreements to curb narcotics production and
trafficking, it has only recently begun to take
aggressive law enforcement actions to control these
activities. Over the past 6 months, the Burmese
Government has cracked down particularly hard on the
Kokang region controlled by Peng Jiasheng's Myanmar
National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), which had
pledged to be opium free by 2000. With the assistance
of the People's Republic of China, the Burmese
Government staged a series of arrests of major
traffickers in all areas of the Kokang, including
Laukkai, the capital of Kokang State.
In other areas, the SPDC has moved more cautiously. In
areas controlled by the United Wa State Army (UWSA),
the principal drug-producing and drug-trafficking
organization in Burma, the government has slowly
expanded
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its administrative presence, but has not yet attempted
any aggressive law enforcement operations comparable to
those in the Kokang region. The Wa have pledged to end
all opium production in their territories by 2005. The
United States has urged the government to take law
enforcement action and exact other forms of pressure
against the Wa narcotics operations even before that
deadline is reached.
There have also been significant improvements in
Burma's cross-border cooperation with neighboring
states. In 2001, Burma signed memoranda of
understanding on narcotics control with both China and
Thailand. The MOU with China established a framework
for joint operations, which in turn led to the series
of arrests and renditions of major traffickers in 2001
and 2002. The MOU with Thailand committed both sides to
closer police cooperation on narcotics control and to
the establishment of three joint ``narcotics
suppression coordination stations'' at major crossing
points on the border. Thailand has also provided a
grant for a crop substitution project in the Wa-
controlled regions of southern Shan State. In addition,
Burma participated actively in a series of
quadrilateral meetings (China, Burma, Laos, and
Thailand) on narcotics control that were held in
Thailand, Burma, and China in late 2001 and early 2002.
Under pressure from the Financial Action Task Force
(FATF), which designated Burma as a ``non-cooperating''
state in June 2001, the Government of Burma has a draft
of a new money laundering law, which will reportedly
address many of the FATF's concerns. That law, as well
as a new Mutual Legal Assistance Law, facilitating
Burmese legal and judicial cooperation with other
states, should be enacted in 2002.
Despite these recent steps, the United States does not
believe that Burma's counternarcotics efforts are
commensurate with the scale of the narcotics problem in
Burma. We work with the GOB on annual opium yield
surveys in Burma, and through UNDCP on opium reduction
and crop substitution programs. In September 2001, the
United States pledged an additional $1,000,000 to
support UNDCP's Wa Alternative Development Project,
which has helped reduce opium production in the
territories of the United Wa State Army, but made
utilization of these funds contingent on the
mobilization of matching funds from other donors.
The Quality of Life in Burma
Burma remains one of the world's poorest countries with
an average per capita GDP of approximately $300,
according to World Bank figures. Primarily an
agricultural economy, Burma also has substantial
mineral, fishing, and timber resources. However, almost
4 decades of military misrule and mismanagement have
produced a chaotic economy characterized by widespread
poverty.
Over the past 2 years, a growing government deficit,
shortfalls in energy supplies and continuing foreign
exchange shortages have hampered economic activity and
contributed to a rapid depreciation in Burma's official
currency, the kyat. Valued at approximately 360 kyat to
the dollar in September 2000, that rate has now risen
to approximately 840 kyat per dollar in March 2002 and
is expected to rise further over the next 3 months. At
the same time, inflation has picked up speed. According
to an urban retail price index calculated by the U.S.
Embassy, cumulative, point-to-point inflation from
January 1, 2001 to January 1, 2002 totaled
approximately 52 percent.
Widespread and severe human rights abuses also
continued throughout Burma during the reporting period.
In ethnic minority areas, in particular, there were
many reports of extrajudicial killings, rape, and
disappearances. Significant numbers of ethnic minority
refugees continue to seek asylum in Thailand. Due to
severe restrictions on religious freedom, Burma was
again designated a ``country of particular concern'' in
2001 under the International Religious Freedom Act.
Prison conditions remained harsh, despite
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access to prisons by the International Committee of the
Red Cross. During the reporting period, only one
political activist was detained for the expression of a
dissenting political view; in early December, Dr. Salai
Tun Than, a retired university rector and graduate of
the University of Wisconsin, was arrested and sentenced
to 7 years in prison for passing out leaflets in front
of Rangoon's City Hall which called for a civilian
government and general elections.
Forced labor also remains an issue of serious concern.
In November 2000, the International Labor Organization
(ILO) Governing Body concluded that the Government of
Burma had not taken effective action to deal with the
use of forced labor in the country and, for the first
time in its history, called on all ILO members to
review their policies toward Burma to ensure that they
did not support forced labor. The United States
strongly supported this decision.
In recent months, the Government of Burma has indicated
that it is more willing to work with the ILO. In
September 2001, an ILO High Level Team concluded that
the GOB had made an ``obvious, but uneven'' effort to
curtail the use of forced labor, but that forced labor
persisted, particularly in areas where the government
was waging active military campaigns against insurgent
forces. It also recommended that the ILO establish a
permanent presence in Burma. A second ILO team visited
Burma in February 2002 and eventually reached agreement
on the appointment of an ILO liaison officer, pending
the establishment of a permanent ILO office in Rangoon.
However, the government has not been willing to address
two other ILO recommendations: appointment of an
ombudsman for forced labor issues, and an independent
investigation of allegations that villagers in Shan
State were killed after complaining to the military
about forced labor.
The regime has released approximately 250 political
prisoners since the initiation of talks with Aung San
Suu Kyi, including approximately 70 over the past 6
months. In response to an appeal from U.N. Special
Rapporteur Pinheiro, it has also released, on
humanitarian grounds, 318 women prisoners who either
had small children or were pregnant. Even with these
releases, more than 1,000 political prisoners still
remained in prison or under detention in Burma as of
March 2002, including over 600 NLD members.
International monitoring of human rights in Burma also
improved to some degree in 2001. For the first time in
6 years, the Government of Burma permitted visits (in
April and October 2001, and then again in February
2002) by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human
Rights in Burma. It also allowed the International
Committee of the Red Cross to visit all prisons in
Burma and reportedly has responded to some ICRC
recommendations about prison conditions.
Development of a Multilateral Strategy
United States policy goals in Burma include progress
towards democracy, improved human rights, a more
effective counternarcotics effort, counterterrorist
cooperation, resolving MIA cases from WW II, and
addressing the HIV/AIDS epidemic which threatens
regional stability and prosperity. We hope that the on-
going talks between Aung San Suu Kyi and the military
will lead to meaningful democratic change and national
reconciliation. We consult regularly, at senior levels,
with countries interested in Burma that share our
goals.
The United States has co-sponsored annual resolutions
at the U.N. General Assembly and the U.N. Commission on
Human Rights concerning Burma. We have also supported
ILO's unprecedented decision on Burma given Burma's
failure to deal effectively with its pervasive forced
labor problems. Most importantly, we strongly support
the mission of the U.N. Secretary General's Special
Envoy for Burma, Razali bin Ismail, who has helped
facilitate the regime's talks with Aung San Suu Kyi. We
are increasingly concerned
[[Page 77650]]
that the Burmese regime is not permitting Mr. Razali to
visit Burma with the regularity or frequency needed at
this stage of the process.
In coordination with the European Union and other
states, the United States has imposed sanctions on
Burma aimed at encouraging democratic transition and
greater respect for human rights. These sanctions
include an arms embargo, a ban on all new U.S.
investment in Burma, the suspension of all bilateral
aid, the withdrawal of GSP privileges, the denial of
OPIC and EXIMBANK programs, visa restrictions on
Burma's senior leaders and opposition to all new
lending or grant programs by the World Bank, the IMF,
the ADB and other international financial institutions
in which the United States has a major interest. We
downgraded the level of our diplomatic representation
from Ambassador to Charg[eacute] d'Affaires in 1989 and
have maintained at that level.
[FR Doc. 02-32150 Filed 12-17-02; 8:45 am]
Billing code 4710-10-M