U.S. State Dept. briefing on July 2

[FreeBurma@xxxxxxx]

Subject: U.S. State Dept. briefing on July 26, 1996

                U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
                    DAILY PRESS BRIEFING
                                                                  DPB #122
              FRIDAY, JULY 26, 1996, 1:10 P. M.
       (ON THE RECORD UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED)



MR. BURNS:  Good afternoon.  Welcome to the State
Department briefing.  I've got a couple of brief
announcements to make, and then I'll go to your questions.

The first concerns the vote by the U.S. Senate last
night on a Burma sanctions amendment.  This amendment was
offered by Senator Cohen of Maine, and it provides the
Administration the flexibility that we need to press the
Burmese regime to make progress in the areas of democracy
and human rights and counter-narcotics.

For this reason, the Clinton Administration is very
much supporting the amendment offered by Senator Cohen. 
It's an important amendment.  You remember this is an issue
that Secretary Christopher raised with all of our partners
at the ASEAN meetings this week in Jakarta.  The action
taken by the Senate is very much consistent with the message
that Secretary Christopher delivered in Jakarta this week,
and that is that the international community ought to be
concerned by the human rights situation in Burma and by the
actions of the Burmese Government to violate the human
rights of Aung San Suu Kyi and the National League of
Democracy and others in Burma who stand for democracy and
human rights.

This amendment provides for sanctions on new U.S.
investment if the Government of Burma has physically harmed,
rearrested for political acts, or exiled Aung San Suu Kyi or
has committed large-scale repression or violence against the
democratic opposition.  We think that this flexibility given
to us by the Congress, this flexibility to undertake these
kinds of measures in the future should the authorities in
Burma cross a certain line, will be a helpful instrument to
U.S. diplomacy towards Burma.

We supported this amendment to send a very clear signal
to the military authorities in Burma that action against
Aung San Suu Kyi or large-scale repression of the opposition
will lead to a strong United States response.

I'll be glad to take any questions on this should you
wish to go into it.

--------

Q:  On Burma, do you have any plan to send the two
envoys back to this region, and how do you assess the impact
on the neighboring countries, who are reluctant to impose
sanctions?

MR. BURNS:  Secretary Christopher had a very good
series of talks with our ASEAN partners in Jakarta this
week.  Ambassador Bill Brown, who was one of our two envoys
a month or so ago, was in Jakarta with the Secretary and
participated in some of those meetings and had his own
consultations.  So in effect we've just had a round of
consultations in Southeast Asia about this issue, and we'll
continue our efforts.

I think Secretary Christopher made clear that we
believe that democratic countries, free countries, have an
obligation to speak out when democrats are being victimized
by autocrats, which is what's happening in Burma, and that
we have an obligation to stand up for people whose voice is
not being heard.  Many members of the National League for
Democracy are not being allowed to speak out.

So the United States has taken a very strong position
on this, and now with the passage of the Cohen Amendment, we
have the flexibility to introduce very tough measures
against the Burmese authorities if we see that they take any
accelerated and tough measures against the National League
for Democracy and Aung San Suu Kyi.

We're very pleased to have this flexibility. We hope
that the authorities in Rangoon understand what this means. 
To date, the United States has already taken a variety of
very strong steps against Burma.  We certainly have worked
to prevent the international financial institutions to put 
forward economic assistance.  We are not encouraging American
investment in Burma.  We've taken a number of others
actions, but those actions will get tougher if we see more
anti-democratic steps directly against Aung San Suu Kyi and
her supporters.

Bill.

Q:  Nick, on that subject, it was reported that the
Secretary said yesterday, I believe, that the U.S. will
further crack down on the Burma Government if the dissent
continues to be repressed in Burma.  Can you tell us what
other actions might the United States take?

MR. BURNS:  Let me just tell you that the Cohen
Amendment prohibits the issuance of visas to Burmese
Government officials.  It requires the United States to vote
against any assistance from the international and financial
institutions to Burma.  We've already been working on that
plane.  It allows for the time being some humanitarian
assistance, counter-narcotics assistance and assistance
promoting human rights and democracy to continue if the
Administration believes it's in our interests.

If the government gets tougher with the democrats in
Burma, then, of course, we could take action in any one of
these areas, given the flexibility of the Cohen Amendment,
to make it clear to the Burmese authorities that their
actions would not be cost-free.  These would be significant,
and sanctions that would prohibit new U.S. investment in
Burma would be, I think, felt in Burma and felt by the
government, and it would not be welcomed by them.

So they've got to think hard now about the consequences
to their relationship with the United States of their own
actions.

Q:  What specifically would the trigger be to these
sanctions coming into force?

MR. BURNS:  The language of the amendment as passed
last evening says that if the Government of Burma has
physically harmed or rearrested for political acts or exiled
Aung San Suu Kyi or has committed large-scale repression or
violence against the democratic opposition, then the
Administration would have the flexibility to implement
sanctions against new U.S. investment.  That would be a very
tough measure indeed, and I think we have very clear
language from the Congress and very helpful language.

I should just put a cap on this by saying for a long
time now the Congress and the Administration have been
debating this issue.  You now have a unified American 
position.  The Clinton Administration and Republicans and
Democrats in Congress are unified that the United States
should have these tougher measures available against Burma,
should that be necessary.

Thank you very much.

Q:  Thank you.

(The briefing concluded at 1:53 p.m.)

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