European Union foreign ministers voted to suspend sanctions against Burma - ostensibly for one year - on April 23. While the foreign ministers were meeting, parliamentary representatives of the National League for Democracy (NLD), the party of Aung San Suu Kyi, refused to take their newly won seats in parliament. NLD MPs are, understandably, refusing to swear an oath to "safeguard" a constitution which institutionalizes military rule.
While the IUF and the labour movement internationally welcomed the (limited) parliamentary elections and the (limited) release of political prisoners, the military continues to wield dictatorial power. Well over a thousand political prisoners remain behnid bars, the military, through a system of reserved seats and proxy rule retains some 80% of the seats in parliament even after the recent election, and censorship and serious restrictions on feedom of assembly and association remain in place. The Federation of Trade Unions of Burma (FTUB), a pillar of the democratic movement, is still designated a "terrorist" organization. And forced labour is widely practiced by military and civilian authorities.
As recently as March 30 EU Trade Commissioner de Gucht had said that the European Union "Would not be rushed by big business into a further easing of sanctions", which include investment bans in key sectors. "You should not overestimate pressure by private companies and certainly you should not overestimate the influence this has on the decision-making of politicians" de Gucht told Reuters while visiting Cambodia.
The EU, however, has in fact hastily and shamelessly yielded to the pressure which de Gucht casually denied weighing on decision-makers. De Gucht also said that a decision on readmitting Burma to the EU's Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) would depend on progress in eliminating forced labour, and that they would be guided in this by the ILO.
"Soon there will be a report by the ILO on forced labour in Myanmar because that was the main [reason] why GSP was suspended to Myanmar. And depending on the outcome of that report, the European Commission will reconsider its position with respect to GSP", he said, adding "I know there is progress in forced labour…"
The November 2011 ILO report to the Governing Body on forced labour in Burma documents no significant reduction in the use of forced labour. The report called for "meaningful consultations" between the ILO and the military to address "Both the policy and behavioural practices driving the use of forced labour by the military, including in particular: the recruitment of children into the armed forces; forced conscription into the armed forces, fire brigade and militia reservist units; portering; construction, maintenance and servicing of military camps; and forced agricultural work." The report records a number of "training/awareness raising activities" ("as yet inconclusive") with major private sector investors, but does not report a reduction of forced labour in the private sector.
EU ministers have a lot of explaining to do.
The practice of forced labour on a massive scale was not only part of the move to deny Burma GSP participation. It was an essential part of the EU's 1996 Common Position imposing sanctions on the regime, citing "in particular, the practice of torture, summary and arbitrary executions, forced labour, abuse of women, political arrests, forced displacement of the population and restrictions on the fundamental rights of freedom of speech, movement and assembly." The Common Position laid the basis for successive measures, including investment bans. Forced labour has never been seen as relevant only to the GSP - until now.
Progress in Burma is welcome. Further progress in Burma requires a coordinated global offer to progressively lift sanctions in so far as concrete progress can be measured against these 1996 benchmarks and against the February 2012 Burma sanctions benchmarks [1] set out by the ITUC.
The ILO also has some explaining to do. The ILO's recent 3-year Memorandum of Understanding with the government of Burma gives the regime a long and, to all appearances, arbitrarily determined breathing space. Why three years? The task is to start to eradicate forced labour now, with the goal of eliminating it quickly.
With investors showing their muscle, timelines are particularly malleable. Now that the EU sanctions have been lifted, it will be difficult to impose them again, particularly when signs of "progress" can be readily adduced. The Memorandum of Understanding must not be used to pave the way for new capitulations - like readmitting Burma to the GSP -on the road to abandoning democratic principles and responsibility.
Now is not the time to lift sanctions on Burma.