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Earlier Story
Britain to End Burma Trade
Support
Thursday, June 19, 1997; 10:55 p.m. EDT
LONDON (AP) -- Britain's government said Thursday
it will
suspend financial support for companies trading
with Burma
until that country makes greater strides toward
democracy.
Derek Fatchett, a junior minister in the Foreign
Office, told
Parliament he would encourage Britain's European Union
partners to take similar action.
``The government will not provide any financial
support to
companies for trade missions to Burma or for trade
promotion
activities within Burma until there is progress towards
democratic reform and respect for human rights in
Burma,'' he
said.
Human rights groups say Burma sentenced more than 1,000
political activists to prison last year, often
under cruel and
inhuman conditions.
The United States imposed economic sanctions
against Burma
in April because of its repression of the country's
democracy
movement led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu
Kyi.
Britain's new Labor government, elected in May, has
pledged
to make human rights a centerpiece of its foreign
policy.