EU warns may tighten Myanmar sanctions

BRUSSELS - EUROPEAN Union leaders said they were ready to tighten sanctions on Myanmar if its military rulers did not ease repression.

The statement, agreed at a summit in Brussels on Friday, said: 'The European Council reaffirms that the EU stands ready to review, amend or further reinforce restrictive measures against the government of Burma/Myanmar in the light of developments on the ground.'

It said the EU remained seriously concerned by the situation after the authorities staged a bloody crackdown in September on peaceful pro-democracy protests led by Buddhist monks.

The 27-nation bloc adopted sanctions on Nov 19 against 1,207 firms in Myanmar and expanded visa bans and asset freezes on the country's military rulers.

The sanctions target the key timber, metals and gemstone sectors. They include an investment ban on companies controlled by the regime or by people linked to it.

The EU also prohibited exports on equipment to sectors involving timber, metals, minerals, semi-precious and precious stones, as well as imports from these sectors.

The official death toll in the suppression of the most serious protests in 20 years is 31, but Western diplomats say the figure was much higher.

The EU has stressed that its trade - and therefore economic leverage - with Myanmar is limited, though it has so far steered clear of the energy sector, in which French oil giant Total is a big investor.

International sanctions against Myanmar hurt only ordinary people and have caused a rise in human trafficking, a senior Myanmar government minister and general said on Friday.

Interior Minister Major General Maung Oo, in rare comments to the foreign press made on the sidelines of an anti-human trafficking conference in Beijing, said: 'Because of economic sanctions on us, some factories have had to be closed.

'The women who work there are now jobless. This is one of the push factors in making them becoming trafficking victims.'

Rights groups say poverty has fuelled a rise in Myanmar nationals being trafficked or simply sold, some as prostitutes in neighbouring Thailand and China.

The former Burma has been under military control since 1962.

The army held elections in 1990, but refused to hand over power after being outvoted by Ms Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Suu Kyi has spent 12 of the last 18 years under house arrest or in jail. -- REUTERS